Author: Anita L. Stewart
Publisher:
Release Date: 1983
Size: 25.69 MB
Format: PDF, ePub
Category : Adjustment (Psychology)
Languages : en
Pages : 391
View: 6730
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Book by Anita L. Stewart, Measuring The Ability To Cope With Serious Illness Books available in PDF, EPUB, Mobi Format. Download
Measuring The Ability To Cope With Serious Illness books, This Note presents a conceptual framework of coping with serious illness. Coping responses are behavioral responses (thoughts or actions) to concerns associated with the illness. These must be viewed within the context of the person's life and illness situation. Coping responses and context variables can be evaluated in relation to certain outcomes, such as psychological well-being or survival. A set of over 75 measures was developed assessing a variety of coping responses, context variables, and outcomes; 60 of these are multi-item measures. Reliability and validity information and suggestions for improving the measures were developed in a sample of 158 people with either cancer or myocardial infarction; data are cross-sectional, obtained from self-administered questionnaires. Measures were constructed on beliefs about recovery from the illness, attitudes about death, attribution of the illness, sense of control, self-esteem, social networks, social support, will to live, active coping, acceptance/rejection of illness, the doctor-patient relationship, benefits of illness, positive and negative feelings, functional status, symptoms, pain, and general health. Studies of interrelationships among the measures include the dimensionality of the context variables; the dimensionality of coping responses; associations among context and coping measures; the relationship of all of these measures to socio-demographic characteristics, outcomes, and physician ratings; and the dimensionality of all of the measures. Results suggest that there are four dimensions of coping responses: (1) relax/routine/enjoy, (2) active distraction, (3) concern with the illness, and (4) rejecting the sick role. Four dimensions of context variables were: (1) social network/social support, (2) personal, (3) beliefs in self-care/religious/spiritual, and (4) belief in the efficacy of medical care.
