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Acceptance, social support, benefit-finding, and depression in women with gynecological cancer

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Abstract

Purpose

Although studies have demonstrated a protective role for benefit finding in psychological distress, little is known about how benefit finding leads to lower psychological distress. This study’s goal was to use a multiple mediator model to evaluate whether the effect of benefit-finding on depression was mediated by acceptance of cancer, acceptance of emotions, and received social support.

Methods

One hundred seventy-four women recently diagnosed with gynecological cancer completed measures of perceived benefits from the cancer experience, acceptance-based strategies, social support, and depression. Using a cross-sectional approach, we analyzed a multiple mediator model with benefit-finding as the independent variable, depressive symptom severity as the outcome, and acceptance-based strategies and social support as mediators.

Results

Acceptance-based strategies and social support significantly mediated the relationship between benefit-finding and depression. Emotional acceptance had the strongest mediational effect, controlling for the other two mediators.

Conclusions

Helping women diagnosed with gynecological cancers identify benefits from their cancer experience may reduce depression by paving the way for them to accept their emotional reactions, accept life changes associated with cancer, and facilitate supportive reactions from family and friends. Future longitudinal research is needed to confirm whether gynecological cancer patients who perceive more benefits will feel less depressed later.

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Acknowledgments

Funding for this study was provided by National Institutes of Health (NIH) Grant R01 CA085566 awarded to Sharon Manne. We thank project managers Tina Gajda, Sara Worhach, Shira Hichenberg, and Kristen Sorice; assistant project manager Jaime Betancourt; and research study assistants Joanna Crincoli, Katie Darabos, Sloan Harrison, Travis Logan, Glynnis McDonnell, Arielle Schwerd, Marie Plaisime, and Caitlin Scally. We also thank the study participants, their oncologists, and the clinical teams at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Fox Chase Cancer Center, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Thomas Jefferson University, Morristown Medical Center, and Cooper University Hospital.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, 195 Little Albany Street, New Brunswick, NJ, 08903, USA

    Sharon L. Manne, Kevin R. Criswell, Carolyn J. Heckman, Jerod Stapleton & Lorna Rodriguez

  2. Michigan State University, 316 Physics Rd., East Lansing, MI, 48823, USA

    Deborah A. Kashy

  3. Helen F. Graham Cancer Center, Christiana Care Health System, 4701 Ogletown Stanton 1200, Newark, DE, 19713, USA

    Shannon Virtue

  4. Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, 3800, Australia

    David W. Kissane

  5. Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, 1440 3rd Ave, New York, NY, 10028, USA

    Melissa Ozga

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  1. Sharon L. Manne
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  2. Deborah A. Kashy
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  9. Lorna Rodriguez
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Correspondence to Sharon L. Manne.

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Manne, S.L., Kashy, D.A., Virtue, S. et al. Acceptance, social support, benefit-finding, and depression in women with gynecological cancer. Qual Life Res 27, 2991–3002 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-018-1953-x

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