Seminary students remain unstudied in the research literature despite their eminent role in caring for the wellbeing of congregants. This study aimed to conduct baseline analysis of their family of origin health, psychological health, and physiological heath by utilizing the Biobehavioral Family Model (BBFM) as a conceptual framework for understanding the associations between these constructs. Statistical analysis utilizing structural equation modeling provided support that the BBFM was a sound model for assessing the relationships between these constructs within a seminary sample.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: The current study examined the relationships between religious resources (i.e., certainty of belief in God and attendance at religious services), religious struggle (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: The impact of religion/spirituality (R/S) on cancer outcomes, including health-related quality of life (HRQoL), has been the topic of much investigation. Reports of the opposite, that is, the impact of cancer on R/S and associations with HRQoL, are few. The current study sought to explore the positive and negative impacts of cancer on the religious faith of survivors as well as the associations of such impacts with HRQoL.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Existing research indicates that religion, spirituality, or both are important to the quality of life of patients with cancer. The current study is the first to characterize trajectories of spiritual well-being (SWB) over time and to identify their predictors in a large, diverse sample of long-term cancer survivors.
Methods: The participants were 2365 cancer survivors representing 10 cancer diagnoses from the American Cancer Society's Studies of Cancer Survivors-I, and they were assessed at 3 time points: 1, 2, and 9 years after their diagnosis.
Background: Prior research on spirituality in cancer survivors has often failed to distinguish the specific contributions of faith, meaning, and peace, dimensions of spiritual well-being, to quality of life (QoL), and has misinterpreted mediation analyses with these indices.
Purpose: We hypothesized a model in which faith would have a significant indirect effect on survivors' functional QoL, mediated through meaning and/or peace.
Methods: Data were from the American Cancer Society's Study of Cancer Survivors-II (N = 8405).
This study examined racial/ethnic differences in spiritual well-being (SWB) among survivors of cancer. We hypothesized higher levels of Peace and Faith, but not Meaning, among Black and Hispanic survivors compared to White survivors, differences that would be reduced but remain significant after controlling for sociodemographic and medical factors. Hypotheses were tested with data from the American Cancer Society's Study of Cancer Survivors-II.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPsychooncology
February 2012
Objective: To understand the influence of cancer-related infertility on women's long-term distress and quality of life. Women diagnosed at age 40 or less with invasive cervical cancer, breast cancer, Hodgkin disease, or non-Hodgkin lymphoma were interviewed an average of 10 years later. We predicted that women whose desire for a child at diagnosis remained unfulfilled would be significantly more distressed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe present study examined the associations between religion and spirituality (R/S), presurgical distress, and other psychosocial factors such as engagement coping, avoidant coping, and social support. Participants were 115 men scheduled for surgery for urologic cancer. Before surgery, participants completed scales measuring intrinsic religiosity, organized religious activity, and nonorganized religious activity (IR, ORA, NORA); social support (Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Survey); and distress (Impact of Event Scale [IES], Perceived Stress Scale [PSS], Brief Symptom Inventory-18 [BSI-18], and Profile of Mood States [POMS]).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: After treatment for prostate cancer, multidisciplinary sexual rehabilitation involving couples appears more promising than traditional urologic treatment for erectile dysfunction (ED). The authors of this report conducted a randomized trial comparing traditional or internet-based sexual counseling with waitlist (WL) control.
Methods: Couples were randomized adaptively to a 3-month WL, a 3-session face-to-face format (FF), or an internet-based format (WEB1).
J Health Care Chaplain
August 2011
This article represents a psychologist's perspective on the case study of Doris, a middle-aged woman with metastatic breast cancer who is initially referred to Chaplain Rhonda for assistance with death anxiety. In the field of psychology, it has long been accepted that good clinical research is informed by theory. As such, Chaplain Rhonda's intervention with Doris will be examined through the lens of object relations theory.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPreservation of fertility is important to adolescent and young adult (AYA) survivors of cancer. Many survivors will maintain their reproductive potential after the successful completion of treatment for cancer. However total-body irradiation, radiation to the gonads, and chemotherapy regimens containing high-dose alkylators can place women at risk for acute ovarian failure or premature menopause and men at risk for temporary or permanent azoospermia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Recent confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Well-Being (FACIT-Sp) Scale in a sample of predominantly white women demonstrated that three factors, Meaning, Peace, and Faith, represented a psychometric improvement over the original 2-factor model. The present study tested these findings in a more diverse sample, assessed the stability of the model across racial/ethnic groups, and tested the contribution of a new item.
Methods: In a study by the American Cancer Society, 8805 cancer survivors provided responses on the FACIT-Sp, which we tested using CFA.
Objective: The 12-item Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Well-being Scale (FACIT-Sp) is a popular measure of the religious/spiritual (R/S) components of quality of life (QoL) in patients with cancer. The original factor analyses of the FACIT-Sp supported two factors: Meaning/Peace and Faith. Because Meaning suggests a cognitive aspect of R/S and Peace an affective component, we hypothesized a 3-factor solution: Meaning, Peace, and Faith.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPediatr Blood Cancer
November 2007
Background: Evidence suggests that cancer diagnosed during adolescence and young adulthood may present considerable challenges to what would otherwise be a relatively smooth developmental trajectory, particularly in areas related to reproductive health. We created and pilot tested a two-session, individually-delivered, counseling intervention to enhance psychosexual development in this unique population.
Procedures: A total of 21 patients, aged 15 to 25 years and treated for cancer within the past 5 years, completed the counseling intervention.
Background: The majority of prostate carcinoma survivors experience enduring sexual difficulties and associated distress in the years after definitive treatment. A counseling intervention aimed at improving levels of sexual satisfaction and increasing successful utilization of medical treatment for erectile dysfunction (ED) was developed and pilot-tested for both the survivor of prostate carcinoma and his partner.
Methods: All male participants were 3-month to 5-year survivors of localized prostate carcinoma who had been treated with radical prostatectomy or radiation therapy, and were married or in a committed relationship.
Objectives: This study investigated the role of religion/spirituality (R/S) and coping in quality of life (QOL) in 129 women immediately prior to a course of adjuvant chemotherapy for ovarian cancer.
Methods: Participants completed the COPE, the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Ovarian (FACT-O), and the Systems of Belief Inventory-15R (SBI-15R). Women averaged 58.
J Natl Cancer Inst Monogr
June 2005
Although research on cancer survivors' experiences and attitudes about infertility is relatively new, existing literature suggests that only about half of men and women of childbearing age receive the information they need from their health care providers at the time of diagnosis and treatment planning. Thus, better patient education strategies are needed. Although the ideal would be to have oncologists conduct detailed discussions of options to preserve or restore fertility with all interested patients, this standard is unrealistic.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The objective of this study is to evaluate the role of personality in the prediction of recurrence and survival times in early-stage malignant melanoma.
Methods: Sixty patients with Stage I malignant melanoma were assessed shortly after surgery and followed for 10-year outcome. Survival analyses were conducted (i.
Background: The influence of psychiatric intervention on cancer outcome remains a topic of considerable debate. We previously reported the survival benefits for 68 patients with malignant melanoma 5 to 6 years following their participation in a structured psychiatric group intervention. In this article, we report the effects of the intervention on disease outcome in these same patients at the 10-year follow-up.
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