title: Women with breast cancer: perception of family functioning and adjustment to illness.
abstract: Fifty-seven women with breast cancer completed measures of family adaptability and cohesion, marital adjustment, and psychosocial adjustment to illness. Using a circumplex model of family systems, we examined whether subjects who perceived their families at moderate levels of cohesion and adaptability reported better psychosocial adjustment than subjects from families with extreme levels of cohesion and adaptability. The results indicated that the patients who reported the best adjustment to breast cancer and in their marriages, also reported the highest levels of family cohesion. There was not a significant relationship between adjustment to illness and adaptability. The implications for the treatment of women with breast cancer and for the families of these patients were discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030.
authors.forename: L C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Friedman
authors.forename: P E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Baer
authors.forename: D V
authors.initials: DV
authors.lastname: Nelson
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lane
authors.forename: F E
authors.initials: FE
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Dworkin
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000523:psychology*; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008393:Marriage; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D011581:Psychological Tests; D011594:Psychometrics; D012803:Sick Role; D012944:Social Support