Cancer-specific self-efficacy and psychosocial and functional adaptation to early stage breast cancer

Background: Although self-efficacy is considered a key psychological resource in adapting to chronic physical illness, this construct has received less attention among individuals coping with cancer.Purpose: To examine changes in cancer self-efficacy over time among women with early stage breast cancer and associations between task-specific domains of selfefficacy and specific psychological, relationship, and functional outcomes.Methods: Ninety-five women diagnosed with early stage breast cancer completed surveys postsurgery and 1 year later.Results: Cancer-related self-efficacy was relatively stable over 1 year, with only 2 domains of efficacy—(a) Activity Management and (b) Self-Satisfaction—evidencing significant increases over the 1-year time period. Cross-sectional findings were relatively consistent with predictions and suggested that specific domains of self-efficacy were more strongly related to relevant domains of adaptation. Longitudinal findings were not as consistent with the domain-specificity hypothesis but did suggest several predictive associations between self-efficacy and outcomes. Personal Management self-efficacy was associated with higher relationship satisfaction, higher Communication Self-Efficacy was associated with less functional impairment, and higher Affective Management self-efficacy was associated with higher self-esteem 1 year later.Conclusions: Specific domains of cancer-related self-efficacy are most closely related to relevant areas of adaptation when considered cross-sectionally, but further study is needed to clarify the nature of these relationships over time. We acknowledge Briana Floyd, Nicole Fasanella, Jenette Hosterman, ChristinaWeakland, and Jennifer Stillman for collection of study data; Sandra Corbett and Joseph Zike for project management; and Dorothy Weber for data management.We thank the oncologists who referred patients to this study as well as the patients who participated. This study was supported by grant CA 77857 from the National Cancer Institute.