Posttraumatic growth and demoralization after cancer: The effects of patients’ meaning-making

• Main Authors: Yeh, Pai-Chen, 葉北辰
• Other Authors: Li, Yu-Chan
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/22524806001757478780

碩士 === 國立臺北護理健康大學 === 生死教育與輔導研究所 === 101 === Background/Objectives: It’s common for cancer patients to experience positive and negative mental processes after diagnosis, such as post traumatic growth (PTG) or demoralization. Although demoralization and PTG are both related to meaning making, little attention has been paid to the correlation among these concepts. The current study attempted to investigate the relationship between demoralization, PTG, and meaning making (focusing on sense-making of cancer and benefit-finding in the experience) on cancer patients. Methods: A lung-cancer/lymphoma/leukemia sample of 200 patients in Mackay Memorial Hospital completed Demoralization Scale (DS-MV), Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI), and questions that assessed sense-making (SM) and benefit-finding (BF). Results: DS-MV was negatively correlated with PTGI, SM, BF, TSD (time since diagnosis). Multiple regression analysis showed that meaning-making has different effects on DS and PTG. The interactions SM × BF and SM × TSD was significant on DS, the higher SM the lower DS when BF or TSD are low. Conclusions: The suffering of cancer may turn on the mental process of demoralization, PTG, and meaning-making in patients. Ways to promote meaning-making of cancer patients to increase PTGI and buffer demoralization will be discussed.