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Dissertation Information for Carol Decker

NAME:
- Carol Decker

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- Social Work

SCHOOL:
- Indiana University (USA) (2005)

ADVISORS:
- James G. Daley

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- Margaret E. Adamek
- Carolyn Black
- John E. Haase

MPACT Status: Incomplete - Not_Inspected

Title: Adolescents with cancer: Social support, family environment, and coping

Abstract: Research has shown that adolescents with cancer (AWC) face treatment that is complex, invasive, and onerous. Coming during a time with major developmental changes, it brings the potential of making high demands on the coping capacity of these adolescents. Using the theoretical frameworks of stress and coping, life-span development and Haase's (1996) Adolescent Resilience Model (ARM), this study explored the influences of social support and family environment on coping for AWC.

This dissertation analyzed information on coping in AWC to determine the best coping model, analyzed the psychometric properties of the measures with this population, explored gender and age differences for each of the measures of social support, family environment and coping, and investigated the strength of the relationship of social support and family environment to coping in AWC using data from two ARM studies (ARM 1, N = 74 newly diagnosed AWC and ARM 2, N = 70 adolescent cancer survivors, ages 11-19). For the coping measure (Jalowiec Coping Scale-Revised), a two dimensional model of coping was derived using evidence from factor analysis, item analysis and Chronbach's alpha. Examination of the items on these dimensions found them to theoretically match two of the three dimensions for a proposed adolescent model of coping derived from the literature. These two dimensions were also used in the subsequent analyses for this study.

For the other measures in the study (social support and family environment), Chronbach's alpha was adequate, although the item analysis suggested some items to be less appropriate for use with this population. Using MANOVA, gender differences were significant for perceived social support from friends only with female AWC reporting significantly higher levels of support from friends than the males. There were no age group differences found for any of the dependent variables.

From the multiple regression analysis, none of the social support or family environment variables were significantly related to either coping dimension. Sources of error based on the assumptions of multiple regression are discussed along with other possible explanations for these findings. Based on these research findings, future research studies on social support, family environment and coping for AWC are proposed.

MPACT Scores for Carol Decker

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2010-09-13 16:59:42

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