The relationship between adult attachment and coping with brain tumour: The mediating role of social support
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Date
2020-01-10Author
Trejnowska, Anna
Goodall, Karen
Rush, Robert
Ellison, Marion
McVittie, Chris
Metadata
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Trejnowska, A., Goodall, K., Rush, R., Ellison, M. & McVittie, C. (2020) The relationship between adult attachment and coping with brain tumour: The mediating role of social support. Psycho-Oncology, 29(4), 729-733.
Abstract
Objective
A primary brain tumour diagnosis is known to elicit higher distress than other forms of cancer
and is related to high depressive symptomatology. Using a cross-sectional design, the present
study explored how individuals cope with this diagnosis using an attachment theory
framework. Attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance were hypothesised to be positively
related to helplessness/hopelessness, anxious preoccupation and cognitive avoidance, and
negatively related to fighting spirit and fatalism coping. We proposed perceived social support
to play a mediating role in those associations. Methods
Four hundred and eighty participants diagnosed with primary brain tumours completed the
Mini-Mental Adjustment to Cancer Scale (Mini-Mac), the Experiences in Close Relationships
Questionnaire–Revised (ECR-R) and the modified Medical Outcomes Study–Social Support
Scale (mMOS-SSS) online. Results
Lower perceived social support mediated the positive associations between both higher
attachment anxiety and avoidance and higher helpless/hopeless coping. Attachment anxiety
was also positively associated with anxious preoccupation. This relationship was not mediated
by perceived social support. Cognitive avoidance was unrelated to both attachment dimensions
and social support. Conclusions
The findings highlight that the differences in coping repertoire are associated with social
relatedness factors, specifically attachment security and its relationship to perceived social
support. Implications of the findings are discussed.