The coping processes of young adult daughters of women with breast cancer

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the relations between the coping processes of young adult daughters of mothers with breast cancer and the daughters’ self-reported stress response symptoms. Specifically, four coping processes were examined in this study: seeking social support, planful problem solving, escape avoidance, and distancing. Thirty-two daughters participated. One-tailed Pearson correlations were used to assess the link between coping processes, measured by the Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WOC), and stress response symptoms, measured by the Impact of Event Scale (IES). Results revealed that planful problem solving, escape avoidance, and distancing coping were positively correlated with stress response symptoms, indicating increased levels of stress symptoms. The majority of daughters in this sample (71.9%) scored above the cutoff point on the IES, indicating need for further assessment and support.