Resilience and self-efficacy as supportive resources in accepting a spouse’s cancer

Abstract

Associations between resilience, self-efficacy, and coping strategies play an important role in the process of accepting the disease in cancer patients by their spouses. This study aims to examine whether coping strategies act as parallel mediators between resilience, self-efficacy, and the acceptance of the partner's illness by the spouse. Two hundred and thirty-two people were examined: 106 women (M = 55.36, SD = 14.13) and 126 men (M = 62.15, SD = 11.55). Their ages ranged from 24 to 85 years (M = 59.06, SD = 13.20). Questionnaires measuring resilience, self-efficacy, coping, and illness acceptance were utilized. Correlational and mediational analyses were employed to examine the mediation effects. The findings demonstrated that resilience and self-efficacy were positively correlated with both the overall score of illness acceptance and its three dimensions (satisfaction with life, reconciliation with the disease, and self-distancing from the disease) in spouses of cancer patients. Furthermore, coping strategies were positively associated with illness acceptance. The main result revealed that problem-focused coping and meaning-focused coping served as parallel mediators in the relationship between resilience and self-efficacy with illness acceptance. This suggests that the way in which spouses cope with the stress caused by their partners' cancer determines the utilization of supportive resources in accepting the partner's illness.