Recovery from minor abdominal surgery: a preliminary attempt to separate anxiety and coping.
Using bivariate and canonical correlations, we investigated the dimensionality and post-operative correlates of indices which, we suggested, could be related to active cognitive coping in 40 patients undergoing minor abdominal surgery. Trait anxiety and pre-operative state anxiety were also measured; these intercorrelated, but each was independent of the putative coping measures. There were, however, intercorrelations amongst these questionnaires, which included the 'worry' scale of a coping checklist, Type A personality, pre-operative arousal and, in a negative direction, 'powerful others' health locus of control and pre-operative stress. The dissociation between anxiety and the remaining measures emerged also in the post-operative correlates of these two dimensions. Whereas anxiety predicted poorer self-rated bodily state on the first post-operative day, the coping measures predicted a better state seven days post-operatively.
Manyande
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A
Department of Psychology, University College London, UK.
Salmon
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P
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D003093:Colitis, Ulcerative / Q000523:psychology / Q000601:surgery*; D003424:Crohn Disease / Q000523:psychology / Q000601:surgery*; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D005260:Female; D006484:Hemorrhoids / Q000523:psychology / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010149:Postoperative Pain / Q000523:psychology; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics; D012803:Sick Role