Longitudinal evolution of meaning in life and its relationship with coping strategies in Spanish patients with a breast cancer diagnosis.

Background: Changes in Meaning in life (MIL) have been shown to be particularly important when people face very stressful events such as receiving a cancer diagnosis and treatment. Active coping strategies have been related to higher levels of MIL in people with a diagnosis of cancer.

Objective: To explore the evolution of MIL in a sample of cancer patients at the time of their diagnosis and three, six, and nine months after surgery, and identify the association between coping strategies three months after diagnosis (T2) and levels of MIL at the different moments in the cancer process (T1-T4).