ASPO Abstracts
Types of Coping Strategies Among Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Patients
Category: Behavioral Science & Health Communication
Conference Year: 2019
Abstract Body:
Purpose: Adolescents and young adults (AYA) diagnosed with cancer ages 15-39 years oldexperience psychosocial challenges during treatment that can last into survivorship. This studymeasured the types of coping being used by AYA cancer patients to deal with stressors.Methods: A total of 53 current and former AYA cancer patients, ages 18-52 years, weresurveyed at enrollment in the Huntsman-Intermountain Adolescent and Young Adult Program, which provides healthcare navigation services. The 28-item Brief COPE tool was used to identify and scorethe types of coping AYA patients use to deal with stress. Coping scores range from 1 (haven’t beendoing at all) to 4 (have been doing a lot). Brief COPE was used to identify 14 strategies that can becategorized as engagement with the diagnosis (positive coping) or disengagement from the diagnosis(negative coping). We examined statistical differences of mean COPE scores for each positive and negativestrategy using t-tests by age and gender.Results: Study participants were 53.8% female with a mean age of 27.5 years old (±6.7);the most common diagnoses were Lymphoma (22.6%) and Leukemia (22.6%). Of the fourteen types of coping defined by Brief COPE, the highest mean coping scores for positive coping were for“Acceptance” (3.31 ±0.68) and “Positive Reframing” (3.00 ±0.77). The least frequently endorsed copingstrategies for negative coping were “Substance Use” (1.13 ±0.43) and “Behavioral Disengagement” (1.25 ±0.44).There were no significant differences by age. However, females had a significantly higher mean copingscore for “Denial” than males (male=1.11±.37 vs. female=1.39±.46, t=2.40, p=.02).Conclusion: AYA cancer patients and survivors most frequently used positive copingstrategies. However, no coping strategies scored higher than a mean of 3.31 ±0.68, which corresponds closer to“doing this a medium amount” than “doing this a lot”, highlighting the observation that AYA cancerpatients are using a variety of coping strategies. Coping with a cancer diagnosis at such a transitional timein AYAs’ lives helps to mediate distress and optimism. Being aware of the frequently used types of bothnegative and positive coping among AYA cancer patients could contribute to strategies to improve support forthis population.
Keywords: Coping AYAPsychosocial