Personal Resources and Total Pain: Exploring the Multiple Mediation of Fear of Recurrence, Meaning-Making, and Coping in Posttreatment Cancer Patients

Abstract

Abstract Background People with cancer who have completed treatment still experience negative effects, such as an increased risk of experiencing cancer-related pain. Psychological factors tend to influence cancer patients’ ability to cope with pain in various dimensions. Although personal resources are an important factor in buffering total pain, still little is known about the intervening variables and underlying mechanisms. Purpose The current study examined the relationship between psychological flexibility, self-esteem, and total pain, while considering fear of recurrence, meaning-making, and coping as potential mediating factors. Methods Adults (N = 304) who completed medical treatment (radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and combined therapy) participated in this study. They completed questionnaires measuring the aforementioned variables. Structural equation models were used to examine mediation effects. Results Psychological flexibility, and partly self-esteem, were negatively related to the dimensions of total pain. However, to a large extent, these relationships were serially and parallelly mediated by fear of recurrence, meaning-making, and emotion-oriented coping. Conclusions Consistent with the meaning-making model, cognitive (meaning-making), and affective (fear of recurrence and emotional coping) factors may be potential mechanisms underlying the association between psychological flexibility, self-esteem, and total pain in posttreatment cancer patients. In this study, they tended to interact in the area of physiological and psychosocial experiences of cancer-related pain.