Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

8-2017

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Social Work

Major Professor

Matthew T. Theriot

Committee Members

William R. Nugent, Mary L. Held, Russell L. Zaretzki

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on the psychological response to stress in cancer patients. Specifically, it examines the factors which increase the likelihood of experiencing distress and posttraumatic stress (PTSS), as well as the relationship between distress and PTSS. The dissertation is composed of three manuscripts, the first of which presents a review of the current literature on distress and PTSS in adult cancer patient populations. It indicates that distress is prevalent in cancer patient populations, and that increased levels of distress may be related to PTSS. Furthermore, risk and protective factors are identified, including older age and social support, which may serve as buffers for distress.

The second paper examines a sample of more than 1,100 cancer patients, across more than a dozen treatment centers. Hierarchical linear modeling techniques are used to examine how clinic-level factors might be related to individual distress levels. The third and final paper describes a conditional process model with distress levels as the predictor and PTSS as the outcome, where physical cancer symptoms mediate the relationship between the two and social support and age serve as moderators. Findings from this dissertation have potential implications for both future research and direct practice, within oncology settings. The studies serve as important next steps in a growing body of research.

Download
Files over 3MB may be slow to open. For best results, right-click and select "save as..."

Included in

Social Work Commons

Share

COinS