Stress, coping and psychological distress in Hong Kong nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients

by Sun, Nee-ngor

(Uncorrected OCR) ABSTRACT Hie relationship between cancer-related stress, coping strategies, health locus of control and psychological distress were examined in 152 Chinese Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma (NPC) patients who had finished active treatment of NPC and was receiving follow-up treatment iu the outpatient cancer clinic. Using COPE, the coping behaviors of Chinese NPC patients were explored. The hypotliesis of goodness-of-fit between controllability of the stressor and the coprag strategics employed was also investigated. The results showed that NPC patients with high chance health locus of control suffered more psychological distress, namely, anxiety, depression, social dysfunctioning and inadequate coping. After controlling for neuroticism and occupational status, positive reinterpretation coping strategy was significant predictor of psychological distress in Chinese NPC patients. 1 lie goodness-of-fit hypothesis was partly supported that NPC patients using emotion-focused coping would suffer less psychological distress when they perceived the stressors as uncontrollable and vice versa. Implications on reducing the psychological distress of cancer survivors as well as the limitations of the present study and directions for future research were discussed.