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Longitudinal course and predictors of communication and affect management self-efficacy among women newly diagnosed with gynecological cancers

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Abstract

Objective

Self-efficacy is an important psychological resource to assist people in managing chronic illness and has been associated with psychological outcomes among patients coping with cancer. Little is known about the course of self-efficacy among gynecological cancer patients coping with cancer and the sociodemographic, medical, and psychological factors that are associated with the course of self-efficacy among these patients.

Methods

One hundred twenty-five women recently diagnosed with gynecological cancer completed a measure of communication and affective management self-efficacy at baseline, 5 weeks, 9 weeks, 6 months, 1 year, and 18 months post-baseline. Participants also completed measures of functional impairment, holding back, perceived unsupportive behaviors of family and friends, emotional expressivity, cancer concerns, depressive symptoms, cancer-specific intrusions and avoidance, problem-solving, and positive reappraisal coping.

Results

Growth curve modeling suggested that women varied considerably in their average reports of self-efficacy and varied with regard to their linear trajectories of self-efficacy over time. Average affect management self-efficacy increased significantly over time. Greater functional impairment, more holding back, more unsupportive responses from friends and family, less emotional expressivity, more cancer concerns, depression, intrusions, or avoidance predicted lower average self-efficacy over time. Women who were less emotionally expressive or held back sharing concerns less reported lower self-efficacy which increased over time.

Conclusions

It will be important for providers to identify gynecological cancer patients who report low ability to communicate feelings and needs and manage emotional reactions to cancer and offer them interventions which bolster self-efficacy.

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Notes

  1. The regression coefficient for the baseline variable estimates the association between the baseline variable and average self-efficacy over time, and the regression coefficient for the interaction between time and the baseline variable estimates the degree to which patients who differ in baseline variable levels increase or decrease more in self-efficacy over time. Random intercepts and time slopes for self-efficacy were included in models.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge Project Managers Tina Gajda, Sara Frederick, Shira Hichenberg, Kristen Sorice, and Research Study Assistants Joanna Crincoli, Katie Darabos, Arielle Schwerd, and Sloan Harrison, and the study participants, their oncologists, and the clinical teams at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Thomas Jefferson University, Morristown Medical Center, and Cooper University Hospital.

Funding source

This study was funded by NIH grant R01 CA085566 to Sharon Manne.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, 195 Little Albany Street, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, USA

    Sharon L Manne & Carolyn J. Heckman

  2. Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA

    Deborah A. Kashy

  3. University of Notre Dame Australia, Fremantle, WA, 6160, Australia

    David W. Kissane

  4. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York City, USA

    Melissa Ozga

  5. Helen F. Graham Cancer Center, Newark, DE, 19713, USA

    Shannon Myers Virtue

Authors
  1. Sharon L Manne
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  2. Deborah A. Kashy
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  4. Melissa Ozga
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  6. Carolyn J. Heckman
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Contributions

Drs. Manne and Kashy developed the concept, with additional input from Drs. Kissane, Heckman, and Myers-Virtue. Dr. Manne drafted all sections of the manuscript other than the Results section. Dr. Kashy conducted all data analyses and drafted most of the Results section. All authors participated in revisions of the manuscript for important intellectual content and have approved the final article.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sharon L Manne.

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Human rights

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Manne, S.L., Kashy, D.A., Kissane, D.W. et al. Longitudinal course and predictors of communication and affect management self-efficacy among women newly diagnosed with gynecological cancers. Support Care Cancer 28, 1929–1939 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-019-04989-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-019-04989-6

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