Abstract
Coherently, with the Organismic valuing theory of growth, the research firstly intended to verify the effectiveness of the pattern of accommodative versus assimilative strategies in predicting posttraumatic growth and, secondly, to verify the effectiveness of autonomy-supportive posttrauma social environment (i.e., caregiver) in predicting accommodative versus assimilative strategies in a group of mixed cancer patients. A structured questionnaire was offered to 150 cancer patients prevalently diagnosed with Stage 1 or Stage 2 breast cancer or gastro-enteric cancer (M = 52 years old; SD = 7.70), an average of 35-month postdiagnosis, using the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory, the Brief Cope, the Impact Scale and the Impact of Event Scale, the Need Satisfaction in Relationship Scale. The accommodative strategy of coping strongly positively correlates with posttraumatic growth (PTG). On the contrary, assimilative strategy weakly correlates with PTG. Furthermore, a model of the pattern of accommodative processes was tested by path analysis. The model was significant and accounted for high amount of variance symptoms of intrusion that started up the process toward growth, predicting the impact of the event on identity of patients that in turn channeled the ruminative process toward an approach strategy of coping. The approach coping strategy was the reliable direct predictor of PTG. No other predictors of growth correlate significantly with autonomy-supportive stile of caring. The quality of personal struggle with the new reality of trauma is the key variable in determining the extent to which posttraumatic growth occurs. On the contrary, the role of the autonomy-supportive social context is unclear.
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Scrignaro, M., Barni, S., Bonetti, M.L., Magrin, M.E. (2011). Studying Predictors of Posttraumatic Growth in Cancer Patients. In: Brdar, I. (eds) The Human Pursuit of Well-Being. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1375-8_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1375-8_8
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