title: Coping and quality of life after tumor surgery: personal and social resources promote different domains of quality of life.
abstract: Personal and social resources facilitate the adaptation to critical life events. The present study investigates whether general self-efficacy beliefs and received social support elevate cancer patients' physical, emotional, and social well-being directly, or whether these effects are rather mediated by active or meaning-focused coping. Gastrointestinal, colorectal, and lung cancer patients were approached at 1 month and at 6 months after surgery (N=175). Structural equation models indicate that self-efficacy at 1 month after surgery exerted a positive direct effect on all three domains of health-related quality of life at 6 months after surgery, but indirect effects through active and meaning-focused coping were also observed. Initial received support elevated later emotional well-being, but not the other two quality of life domains. This effect was not mediated by coping. Results suggest the development of interventions to increase optimistic self-beliefs and coping skills in tumor-surgery patients.
authors.affiliation: Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. Sonja.Boehmen-Lasthaus@med3.imed.uni-erlangen.de
authors.forename: Sonja
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Boehmer
authors.forename: Aleksandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Luszczynska
authors.forename: Ralf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Schwarzer
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D020377:Self Efficacy; D012944:Social Support