Iranian Version of the Mini-Mental Adjustment to Cancer Scale: Factor Structure and Psychometric Properties

Abstract

Mental adjustment to cancer is known as a psychological, physical, and psychological health variable among cancer patients. The present study examines the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Mini-Mental Adjustment to Cancer scale (Mini-MAC) in a sample of Iranian adults who suffer from cancer. The sample consists of 320 cancer patients selected through non-random convenient sampling procedure from the hospitals and clinics in the cities of Kermanshah and Shiraz in Iran, using the Mini-MAC scale. One hundred of these patients also completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale. Statistical methods used to analyze the data included confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis, discriminate validity, and Cronbach alpha coefficients for internal consistency. Factor analysis confirms five factors in the Mini-MAC. The values of fit indices are within the acceptable range. Significant correlations between the Mini-MAC and other measures also show that this scale has discriminate validity. Alpha coefficients for the subscales are Helplessness/Hopelessness,.94; Cognitive Avoidance.76; Anxious Preoccupation,.90; Fatalism,.77; Fighting Spirit.80; and total scale.84, respectively. The results confirm the five-factor structure of the Persian Mini-MAC scale and also prove that it is a reliable and valid scale. They show that this scale has sufficient power to measure different aspects of mental adjustment in patients with cancer.

Validation of Mini-Mental Adjustment to Cancer Scale in A Moroccan Sample of Breast Cancer Women

“…After dispatching ve items, the current version was validated yielding the ve-factors structure of the original version of Mini-MAC instrument (Helpless/Hopeless, Anxious Preoccupation, Fighting Spirit, Avoidance, and Fatalism). The same structure, proposed originally by Watson et al, has been already validated by many authors working on different types of cancer (15)(16)(17)(18)(19)21). Our validated version showed similar psychometric properties as the original version (15), and other Mini-MAC validated version (17,19,(22)(23)(24).…”

“…The only difference between previous ndings and ours resides in the degree of factors reliability and the factor intercorrelations. In this study, the coe cients reliability for AP, FS, CA and FA are signi cantly high compared to some previous studies (15,17,18,24), but seem nearly similar to certain others (19,25).…”

“…Originally de ned as a maladjustment style, fatalism was supposed to be adopted by patients to accept the situation as inevitable. Meanwhile, other studies (21) have considered it as an adaptive measure to religion, faith, reassessment, positive thinking, and acceptance (19,24,26). Fatalism was found to be positively correlated with spirituality and active participation in religious practice, but was not associated with a perceived lack of control and acceptance of results.…”

“…Hence, the original version was revised by Watson (15) The Mini-MAC, distilled from the MAC, has been translated into several other languages and investigated by many studies. Some authors have con rmed the original ve-factor structure of the original Mini-MAC (16)(17)(18)(19), while others proposed different structures of two (20), three (21), four (22)(23)(24) or ve factors (16,18,19,21,25).…”

Studying the Relation between Mental Adjustment to Cancer and Health-Related Quality of Life in Breast Cancer Patients

“…The final version obtained made the content valid and provided to another psychology professor to evaluate the scale from content and partial clarity that led to reforms in some items. Alpha coefficients are helplessness/hopelessness 0.94, cognitive avoidance 0.76, anxious preoccupation 0.90, fatalism 0.77, the fighting spirit 0.80 for the subscales and the total scale is 0.84 respectively (25). The findings show that the Mini-MAC can be used as a valid and reliable tool to measure adjustment and coping with cancer.…”