Cancer Diagnosis and Mental Health among Older White Adults

Abstract

Cancer is a life-changing condition for many American seniors, and a growing body of literature is assessing the mental health implications of living with the disease. This article builds from the well-known buffering hypothesis with insights from recent cancer research to investigate whether social networks moderate the association between cancer and mental health for older men and women. Analyses use two waves of survey data (2005)(2006) and 2011) from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (N = 1,367), enabling us to track new diagnoses of cancer and network dynamics over time. Consistent with a stress-buffering pattern, larger and growing networks were associated with lower rates of depressive symptomology among women survivors relative to those with small and shrinking networks. There was little evidence that emotional closeness to network members or density moderated the mental health consequences of cancer among men or women.

Mastery and social support moderate the effects of educational level on adjustment of Arab mothers of children diagnosed with cancer

“…The associations between resources and adjustment indices proved to be significant, as hypothesised (H2): educational level, mastery and social support were positively related to the mothers' quality of life, but were negatively related to their distress. These findings are supported by previous research that investigated a variety of stressful situations in the context of illness (Dagan et al, ; Grzywacz et al, ; Henselmans et al, ; Mu et al, ; Schafer & Koltai, ) and again attest to the importance of educational level and psychosocial resources during times of stress (Lazarus & Folkman, ). In particular, education effects disappeared in the presence of mastery and social support in the regression analyses, whereas mastery and social support contributed independently to the mothers' quality of life, attesting to their unique importance during the highly stressful situation of their child's cancer diagnosis.…”

“…High levels of social support contributed to coping with psychological stress (Kim, Sherman, & Taylor, 2008), promoted mental health in the wake of trauma (Prati & Pietrantoni, 2010) and buffered the negative effects of a major disaster on distress (Arnberg, Hultman, Michel, & Lundin, 2012). In the context of cancer, larger social networks were related to lower depressive symptoms among older women survivors (Schafer & Koltai, 2015) and in parents coping with their child's cancer, low perceived social support was associated with high psychological distress (Klassen et al, 2007). Measuring PTSS and distress in mothers of children with leukaemia, Tremolada, Bonichini, Schiavo, and Pillon (2012) found social support to be a predictor of PTSS through the mediation of better current life perceptions and distress symptoms.…”

“…anxiety, depression) and loss of role function (i.e., social, sexual, vocation)" (p. 136). Indeed, adjustment to illness has been studied in the past using distress or depression measures (Dagan et al, 2011;Henselmans et al, 2010;Norberg, Lindblad, & Boman, 2005;Schafer & Koltai, 2015), and this study followed using a distress measure that included assessments of anxiety, depression and somatic symptoms.…”

Typologies for Restructuring Relationships in Cancer Survivorship

“…Peers can provide emotional, practical, appraisal and informational support through the perspective of shared personal experience and connectedness 54,55 ; this is often missing from relationships with friends and family 56 . The strain that cancer can place on close social networks means cancer survivors may turn to more outward facing networks 6 , using them as a SM tool for initiating lifestyle changes. Factors such as cancer survivors' personal characteristics, cancer type and stage, treatment side-effects, the emergence of carer and caregiving roles 6 , the desire to return to normality 57 and their perceived need for support 58 , may influence to what extent cancer survivors are willing and able to revalidate or relinquish certain relationships, or start new ones.…”

“…Its benefits to physical and mental wellbeing have been demonstrated in multiple research studies [2][3][4] . The 'buffering' hypothesis suggests that positive social relationships and networks are linked to improved health 5 , as they buffer the unwanted health consequences caused by stressful life events 6 . As such, psychosocial stress is most damaging to the health and well-being of those with little or no social support 7 .…”