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Does social support from family and friends work as a buffer against reactions to stressful life events such as terminal cancer?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2007

GERD INGER RINGDAL ,
KRISTEN RINGDAL ,
MARIT S. JORDHØY  and
STEIN KAASA
GERD INGER RINGDAL
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
KRISTEN RINGDAL
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
MARIT S. JORDHØY
Affiliation:
Unit of Applied Clinical Research, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
STEIN KAASA
Affiliation:
Unit of Applied Clinical Research, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway Palliative Medicine Unit, Department of Oncology and Radiotherapy, St. Olavs University Hospital, Trondheim, Norway
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Abstract

Objective: To examine the relationship between social support and emotional functioning and stress reactions. Our hypothesis is that patients who reported a high degree of social support will experience better emotional functioning and less serious stress reactions than patients with a low degree of social support.

Method: The sample was comprised of 434 patients at the Palliative Medicine Unit (PMU), University Hospital of Trondheim in Norway. The patients completed a questionnaire monthly including questions about social support from the MacAdam's Scale, subjective stress measured by the Impact of Event Scale (IES), and emotional functioning measured by the subscale in the EORTC QLQ-30.

Results: Although our hypothesis was not supported at the baseline assessment, it was supported at the second assessment, 2 months later. Patients with high social support reported better emotional functioning and less serious stress reactions, in terms of lower scores on the IES avoidance subscale, than patients with a low degree of social support.

Significance of the results: The mixed findings may indicate that social support has only small effects on emotional functioning and stress reactions. Our results on the second assessment indicate, however, that social support might work as a buffer against reactions toward external stressful events such as terminal cancer.

Keywords

Cancer victimsSocial supportBuffer effectStress reactionsEmotional functioning
Type
Research Article
Information
Palliative & Supportive Care , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , March 2007 , pp. 61 - 69
Copyright
© 2007 Cambridge University Press

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