title: The role of religious coping in adjustment to cancer.
abstract: This study tested a model of adjustment to cancer in which social support, disease impact, and religious coping were hypothesized to have an impact on adjustment to cancer that was mediated by self-efficacy. Two hundred and ninety-two people with cancer completed questionnaires. Three analyses were undertaken: first, the structure of the Religious Problem Solving Scale was assessed by a factor analysis in which two factors emerged, Deferring-Collaborative and Self-Directing; second, the resulting factors' relationships to outcome measures were assessed through correlational and regression analyses; third, a mediated model of coping was tested with self-efficacy as a mediating variable between religious coping and adjustment. The Deferring-Collaborative factor had positive relationships with most of the variables and was partially mediated by self-efficacy. The results indicate that religious coping has no relationship to quality of life, a positive relationship with adjustment, and was more important in this study than available social support.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Haggar Hall, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA. narin.1@nd.edu
authors.forename: Raymond C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Nairn
authors.forename: Thomas V
authors.initials: TV
authors.lastname: Merluzzi
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living / Q000523:psychology; D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011340:Problem Solving; D011594:Psychometrics; D012068:Religion and Medicine; D020377:Self Efficacy; D012803:Sick Role; D018434:Sickness Impact Profile; D012944:Social Support