Specificity May Count: Not Every Aspect of Coping Self-Efficacy is Beneficial to Quality of Life Among Chinese Cancer Survivors in China

Background

General self-efficacy has been shown to be a protective factor of cancer survivors’ quality of life (QoL). Coping self-efficacy includes multiple aspects, such as maintaining positive attitudes, regulating emotion, seeking social support, and seeking medical information. How these various aspects are related to multiple domains of QoL is unclear.

Purpose

This study examined the associations between different aspects of coping self-efficacy and QoL among Chinese cancer survivors.

Methods

A sample of 238 Chinese cancer survivors (mean age?=?55.7, 74.4 % female) in Beijing, China participated in the survey. Coping self-efficacy and QoL were measured by the Cancer Behavior Inventory and Quality of Life—Cancer Survivor Instrument.

Results

After controlling for demographic and disease-related variables, hierarchical regression analyses showed that coping self-efficacy in accepting cancer/maintaining a positive attitude was positively associated with physical, psychological, and spiritual QoL. Self-efficacy in affective regulation was positively associated with psychological and social QoL, but negatively associated with spiritual well-being. Self-efficacy in seeking support was positively associated with spiritual well-being, but negatively associated with physical QoL. Self-efficacy in seeking and understanding medical information was negatively associated with psychological and social QoL.

Conclusions

Our findings imply the specificity of coping self-efficacy in predicting QOL. Our findings could be helpful for designing future interventions. Increasing cancer survivors’ self-efficacies in accepting cancer/maintaining a positive attitude, affective regulation, and seeking support may improve cancer survivors’ QoL depending on the specific domains.