Evaluation of a psychosocial intervention on social support, perceived control, coping strategies, emotional distress, and quality of life of breast cancer patients.

The purpose of this research was to demonstrate that a specific psychosocial intervention changes reactions to cancer and quality of life. This study was carried out on 66 patients with a first breast cancer. Patients were randomly divided into two groups: a specific intervention group (G1, 8 sessions) or a support group (G2, 8 sessions).

Stressful events, social support and coping strategies of primiparous women during the postpartum period: a qualitative study.

Objective: to identify problems and events perceived as stressful by primiparous mothers during the postpartum period, and to explore the social support and coping strategies they used to face these situations.

Design: a qualitative study. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews and analysed using a content-analysis method.

[The French adaptation of the STAXI-2, C.D. Spielberger's State-trait anger expression inventory].

The assessment of anger has received increasing attention because of growing evidence that anger and hostility are related to heart disease. Research on anger assessment has also been stimulated by the development of psychometric measures for evaluating different aspects of anger. First, we review the major self-report scales used to assess anger and hostility.

[Pain coping strategies: French adaptation of the coping strategies questionnaire (CSQ-F)].

Background: Many studies have shown that the strategies used to cope with chronic pain play a very important role in the adjustment to the pathology and to its effects (emotional distress, physical and psychosocial impairment, and quality of life). Among the methods assessing coping with pain, the most widely used instrument at present is the coping strategies questionnaire (CSQ) developed by Rosenstiel and Keefe, [Pain 17 (1983) 33-44]. This questionnaire is composed of 48 items distributed in eight subscales each including six items: diverting attention, reinterpreting pain sensations, coping self-statements, ignoring pain sensations, praying and hoping, catastrophizing, increasing activity level, and increasing pain behaviour.

Do anxiety, body image, social support and coping strategies predict survival in breast cancer? A ten-year follow-up study.

A longitudinal study enrolled 75 women with primary breast cancer. Before the confirmation of diagnosis, authors measured trait-anxiety and body satisfaction. Three weeks after diagnosis, coping strategies and state-anxiety were evaluated.

Coping and adapting to breast cancer: a six-month prospective study.

Aims: To compare ways of coping with breast cancer in acute and chronic periods and to approach their efficiency on psychological adaptation at each time.

Methods: Psychometric evaluation of 151 breast cancer women the day before surgery (T1), and of 107 of them 6 months later (T2), with self-rated questionnaires (CHIP Scale, HADS), "t Student" tests, correlation analyses and multiple regression analyses.

Results And Discussion: The coping scores during the chronic period are related to those observed during the acute period, with a decrease of instrumental strategies and a stability of distraction and palliative coping.

Dimensions of cancer locus of control scale as predictors of psychological adjustment and survival in breast cancer patients.

The Cancer Locus of Control Scale, to investigate specific beliefs of control in cancer patients, was validated previously with an English-speaking population. This study tested the construct and concurrent validity of a 17-item French version of the scale and explored its relations with psychological adjustment and with adaptation assessed two years later. In a sample of 157 women diagnosed with a first breast cancer, the French version was administered along with the Body Image Questionnaire, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, the Perceived Stress Scale, the Social Support Questionnaire, and the Ways of Coping Checklist.

Psycho-social factors and coping strategies as predictors of chronic evolution and quality of life in patients with low back pain: a prospective study.

Unlabelled: Low back pain (LBP) is a major problem of public health. Chronic pain is the most difficult to treat and the most expensive. The way patients cope with their pain may influence its outcome.

Short form of Sarason's Social Support Questionnaire: French adaptation and validation.

The original short form of Sarason's Social Support Questionnaire measures two dimensions of social support, availability and satisfaction. The factorial structure of the social support was assessed in a French sample along with the association between the dimensions of social support and personality traits such as Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Depression. A 6-item French version was administered to 648 subjects: 348 university freshmen (228 females, 120 males) and 304 unemployed men.

Psychosocial factors associated with perceived disease severity in patients with chronic hepatitis C: relationship with information sources and attentional coping styles.

The aim of this study was to investigate psychosocial factors associated with perceived disease severity, with emphasis on informational processing, in 185 consecutive patients with chronic hepatitis C. Medical data, information sources regarding chronic hepatitis C, and attentional coping styles were assessed. The patients considered their hepatitis C a severe disease and gave it a mean rating of 74 (SD = 19) on a 100-mm visual analogue scale, but this perception was not related to liver histological severity.

The body-image questionnaire: an extension.

The 19-item Body-Image Questionnaire, developed by our team and first published in this journal in 1987 by Bruchon-Schweitzer, was administered to 1,222 male and female French subjects. A principal component analysis of their responses yielded an axis we interpreted as a general Body Satisfaction dimension. The four-factor structure observed in 1987 was not replicated.

Development and validation of a multidimensional smoking behaviour questionnaire.

We administered a 42-item smoking behaviour questionnaire to 150 adult smokers (75 men and 75 women), 18 to 70 years old (M = 37.1 yr., SD = 12.

French adaptation of the Ways of Coping Checklist.

A short form (42 items) of the Ways of Coping Checklist was administered to 468 French men and women. A factor analysis of the responses yielded three factors, accounting for about 35% of the total variance, and named Problem-focused Coping, Emotion-focused Coping, and Social Support seeking. The first two dimensions are close to those generally described in the literature.

Psychological adjustment to hospitalization: factorial structure, antecedents, and outcome.

Using various methods of observation, the psychological status of 211 patients of both sexes was assessed after the surgery or treatment justifying their hospitalization. Intercorrelations of scores on 40 variables obtained to describe the state of the patients were submitted to a principal components analysis. The latter yielded a factor of maladjustment to hospitalization associated with various psychosociological antecedents of the patients and a short-term unfavorable development of their physical health.

[Various components of smoking behavior: construction and validation of a questionnaire].

The general objective of this work was to identify within the smoking population different types of smoking behavior and to determine the multiple pharmacological and psychosocial factors (and their interaction) which could determine these categories of behavior. Our first step was to construct a valid instrument consisting of a questionnaire (self-administered) with the goal to measure the different types of smoking behavior. The second step relevant to the multifactorial approach is actually in progress.

Dimensionality of body perception and personality.

Fisher's Body Focus Questionnaire (1970) permits an estimation of the relative perceptive importance of eight zones of the body. The scores obtained by 377 French students of both sexes on the French version of this questionnaire show that the various body perceptions are structured by two main perceptual patterns, one of which is probably linked to orality and the other to anality. The relations which appeared between the scores and various personality traits are discussed.