Association between self-disclosure and benefit finding of Chinese cancer patients caregivers: the mediation effect of coping styles.

Purpose: To examine the relationship between self-disclosure, coping styles, and benefit finding (BF) among caregivers of cancer patients. The study also aimed to identify the factors influencing BF and the impact of coping styles on the relationship between self-disclosure and BF.

Methods: Convenience sampling was used to select 300 caregivers of cancer patients aged greater than 18 years from October 2022 to April 2023 in Chengdu, China. The demographic and clinical characteristics questionnaire, the Benefit Finding Scale (BFS), the Distress Disclosure Index Scale (DDI), and the Simple Coping Style Scale (SCSQ) for caregivers were included in this study. Descriptive statistics, t-tests, one-way analysis of variance, Pearson's correlation analyses, and multiple linear regression models were used. The effect of mediation was tested by the PROCESS macro (Model 4) for SPSS 26.0 by Hayes using 5000 bootstrap samples.

Results: There were 292 valid questionnaires (effective response rate 97.33%). The total scores of BF, self-disclosure, negative coping style, and positive coping style of caregivers were 67.77 ± 14.78, 38.23 ± 8.59, 19.68 ± 5.98, and 9.88 ± 4.18, respectively; Pearson's correlation analysis showed that BF was positively correlated with self-disclosure, positive coping, and negatively correlated with negative coping; multiple linear regression analysis showed that self-disclosure, positive coping, and negative coping were influential factors of BF. The results revealed that the effect of self-disclosure on BF was partly mediated by coping styles. It also confirmed that the mediation effect accounted for 54.03% of the total effect.

Conclusion: The BF of caregivers is at a moderate level. Self-disclosure may influence BF partly because of coping styles.