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Posttraumatic growth, social support, and social constraint in hematopoietic stem cell transplant survivors

  1. Maria Nenova1,2,*,
  2. Katherine DuHamel2,3,
  3. Vance Zemon1,
  4. Christine Rini3,4,
  5. William H. Redd3

Article first published online: 3 OCT 2011

DOI: 10.1002/pon.2073

Issue

Psycho‐Oncology

Psycho-Oncology

Volume 22, Issue 1, pages 195–202, January 2013

Additional Information

How to Cite

Nenova, M., DuHamel, K., Zemon, V., Rini, C. and Redd, W. H. (2013), Posttraumatic growth, social support, and social constraint in hematopoietic stem cell transplant survivors. Psycho-Oncology, 22: 195–202. doi: 10.1002/pon.2073

Author Information

  1. 1

    Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, Yeshiva University, New York, NY, USA

  2. 2

    Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA

  3. 3

    Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA

  4. 4

    The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

*Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, 641 Lexington Avenue, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10022, USA. E-mail: nenovam@mskcc.org

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 4 JAN 2013
  2. Article first published online: 3 OCT 2011
  3. Manuscript Accepted: 19 AUG 2011
  4. Manuscript Revised: 16 AUG 2011
  5. Manuscript Received: 11 MAR 2011

Funded by

  • NCI. Grant Number: R01 CA093609

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Keywords:

  • cancer;
  • oncology;
  • posttraumatic growth;
  • social support;
  • social constraint

Abstract

Objective

The relation between posttraumatic growth (PTG) and aspects of the social context, such as social support and social constraint, continues to be unclear in cancer survivors. Social cognitive processing theory is a useful framework for examining the effect of the social context on PTG. In theory, support interactions may either facilitate or hinder cognitive processing and thus lead to different PTG outcomes. The current study tested the hypothesis that emotional support and instrumental support would each explain a unique amount of the variance in PTG in distressed hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) survivors. Additionally, it was predicted that social constraint on cancer-related disclosure would be negatively associated with PTG.

Methods

Forty-nine distressed HSCT survivors with a spouse or partner completed the posttraumatic growth inventory and measures of social support received from their spouse/partner and social constraint from people close to them as part of a larger clinical trial.

Results

Both emotional and instrumental social support were positively correlated with PTG, and social constraint on disclosure was not associated with PTG. Contrary to hypotheses, instrumental support was the only unique social contextual predictor of PTG.

Conclusions

The results of this study highlight the importance of examining the effects of subtypes of social support on PTG separately. Findings are discussed in the context of the cognitive (i.e., processing of the traumatic event) versus non-cognitive (i.e., buffering stress) pathways between the social context and PTG. Future research directions are presented. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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