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The association between psychological functioning and social support and social constraint after cancer diagnosis: a 30-day daily diary study

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Abstract

This study evaluated one positive and one negative aspect of social functioning (social support and social constraint, respectively) to increase understanding of its relation to psychological functioning (distress and wellbeing) after cancer diagnosis. Participants in this longitudinal study were recently diagnosed, predominately late stage, first primary cancer survivors (n = 48). Data collection involved a 30-day period of daily assessment. Data were analyzed using multilevel linear models. As in prior studies, none of the variables changed significantly over time (ps = .07 to .99). Based on the intraclass correlation coefficient, 51 to 75% of the variance in the daily assessment data are attributable to between-person differences. There was a positive relationship between social constraint and both general and cancer-specific distress (ps < .05) and between social support and cancer-specific wellbeing (ps < .001). In prospective models, higher than average general distress predicted higher social support the next day (p = .004) and higher than average cancer-specific wellbeing predicted more social constraint the next day (p = .01). The findings lend some support to the interdependence of social functioning and psychological functioning after cancer diagnosis.

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Notes

  1. In this study, the term “cancer survivor” refers to any individual with a history of cancer diagnosis, regardless of time since diagnosis or treatment phase (Marzorati et al., 2017).

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the assistance of Caitlin Dunworth, MPH and Joan Kahl, MS who helped with study coordination as well as Joseph Valentino, MD and Rachel Miller, MD who served as clinic champions. Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health under award numbers K07 CA181351 and the Shared Research Facilities of P30 CA177558, and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under award number UL1 TR001998. The content of this publication is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

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JRR and JLB contributed to study conception and design, material preparation, and data collection. JRR and CLB conducted data analysis. All authors contributed to manuscript writing, and read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jessica L. Burris.

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This study did not involve any animal subjects. All procedures involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the insitution where the research was conducted and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments. This study was approved by the University of Kentucky Institutional Review Board and written informed consent was obtained for every participant in this study.

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Rivera-Rivera, J.N., Badour, C.L. & Burris, J.L. The association between psychological functioning and social support and social constraint after cancer diagnosis: a 30-day daily diary study. J Behav Med 44, 355–367 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-021-00200-6

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