Family Intervention for Young Women With Breast Cancer
Abstract
Psychosocial interventions effectively reduce psychological morbidity in cancer patients, but young woman with breast cancer and their families have not yet been targeted for such intervention. A pilot study assessed the impact of breast cancer on the families of younger women, focusing on parental adjustment, family coping and the adjustment of preschool and school age children. Based on this pilot data, a Basic psychosocial intervention involving a group for breast cancer patients and their spouses and an Expanded intervention that adds groups for the children were developed. Baseline data on 30 families enrolled thus far reveals that the psychosocial functioning of a majority of the women (86%) was within normal limits, whereas 44% of spouses endorsed clinical levels of psychological distress. Children exhibited few emotional or behavioral problems, although school aged girls scored below boys in some domains of self-competence. Global scales of family functioning revealed competency in coping, with a subset of families exhibiting distress on measures of psychosocial functioning and family coping. The effects of the Basic and the Expanded interventions on reducing psychological distress and enhancing coping in young women with breast cancer and their families will be compared in the fourth year of this study.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2000
- Accession Number
- ADA394135
Entities
People
- Sally E. Tarbell
Organizations
- University of Pittsburgh