Psychosocial functioning and career decision-making in Israeli adolescent and young adult cancer survivors.
OBJECTIVE
This study examined how dispositional optimism, health vulnerability, and time perspective were related to adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer survivors' career decision-making (CDM) and quality of life (QOL). Secondarily, how cultural factors relate to CDM and QOL among Israeli-Jewish and Israeli-Arab cancer survivors was explored.


METHODS
Fifty-one cancer survivors (68.6% females, 80.4% Israeli-Jewish, 19.6% Israeli-Arab, M(age) = 21.45 years), at least 6 months post-active treatment (M(time) = 5.75 years) completed self-report questionnaires.


RESULTS
Multiple regression analyses indicated that optimism, vulnerability, and past negative, present fatalistic, and future time perspective were significantly associated with QOL (F(6, 47) = 6.80, P < 0.001) and CDM (F(6, 47) = 2.46, P < 0.04). Perceived vulnerability explained the main portion of QOL variance with greater vulnerability associated with lowered QOL (beta = 0.33, P < 0.001). Optimism was positively associated with QOL (beta = 0.55, P < 0.02). Greater present fatalistic time perspective was associated with greater CDM difficulties (beta = 0.32, P < 0.05). Multivariate analyses indicated greater past negative time perceptions (F(1, 46) = 8.92, P < 0.005) and fatalism about the future (F(1, 46) = 5.90, P < 0.02) among Israeli-Arabs as compared to Israeli-Jewish survivors. Israeli-Jewish survivors were more optimistic than Israeli-Arab survivors (F(1, 46) = 3.48, P < 0.065).


CONCLUSIONS
Vulnerability, optimism, and time perspective were significantly associated with QOL and CDM among Israeli AYA cancer survivors. Israeli-Arabs viewed their pasts and futures more negatively and reported lower optimism than Israeli-Jews. Implications for future research and interventions were considered.
Stern
Marilyn
M
Department of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia 23284, USA. mstern@vcu.edu
Krivoy
Elena
E
Foster
Rebecca H
RH
Bitsko
Matthew
M
Toren
Amos
A
Ben-Arush
Myriam
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002321:Career Choice; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D011788:Quality of Life; D017741:Survivors / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult