THE COGNITIVE AND AFFECTIVE APPRAISAL OF SUFFERING DUE TO PHYSICAL PAIN AND THE COPING STRATEGIES AND BEHAVIORS OF METASTATIC BREAST CANCER PATIENTS.
Contributors: Catholic University of America.
Published: 1986
Number of pages: 248
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: Nursing shares responsibility with the other health professions to contribute to the body of knowledge relevant to the suffering experience. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between the cognitive and affective appraisal of suffering due to physical pain and the coping strategies and behaviors of metastatic breast cancer patients. A descriptive correlational research design was used in this study. The scope of the study was limited to the investigation of eighty women between thirty and eighty years of age who had a confirmed diagnosis of metastatic adenocarcinoma of the breast, who were receiving therapy to control the disease process, and who were experiencing physical pain. The sample of subjects meeting the criteria for inclusion in this study was drawn from the population of those attending the outpatient clinics at three large cancer centers, a chronic care hospital, and two community hospitals.

The instruments utilized in this study were the Multiple Affect Adjective Checklist (Zuckerman & Lubin, 1965), and two instruments developed for this study by the investigator: the Inventory of Suffering Due to Physical Pain and Suffering Coping Tool. The measurement instruments were administered to the subjects using structured interviews which were conducted while the subjects were attending the clinic.

Principle component factor analysis was calculated to determine variable clusters of highly associated variables from the two investigator developed measurement instruments: the Inventory of Suffering Due to Physical Pain and the Suffering Coping Tool. Multivariate factor analysis of the research data revealed no highly associated factors from either the items of the Inventory of Suffering Due to Physical Pain or the items of the Suffering Coping Tool.

Pearson product moment correlations were calculated to identify any linear relationships between the cognitive and the affective appraisal of suffering and the behaviors and strategies utilized by advanced breast cancer patients for coping with suffering. Within the limitations of this study a number of significant linear relationships were found between the cognitive and the affective appraisal of the suffering experience and the strategies and behaviors used to cope with suffering by the advanced breast cancer subjects.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-04, Section: B, page: 1484.

Thesis (D.N.SC.)--THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA, 1986.

School code: 0043.