Religion and spirituality as a coping mechanism with cancer [Elektronische Ressource] / Shiri Versano. Betreuer: Hans Reinecker

Versano, Shiri

Sujets

• Psychologie

Informations

• Publié par: otto-friedrich-universitat_bamberg
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 41
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Religion and Spirituality as a
Coping Mechanism with Cancer


Dissertation
at the Fakultät Humanwissenschaften der Otto Friedrich Universität Bamberg

presented by

Shiri Versano
from
Israel




Bamberg, July 13th, 2011
Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 14. November 2011
Dekan: Universitätsprofessorin Dr. Sibylle Rahm
Erstgutachter: Universitätsprofessor Dr. Hans Reinecker
Zweitgutachter: Universitätsprofessor Dr. Peter Herschbach


Religion and Spirituality as Coping Mechanism with Cancer iii

Acknowledgements
Upon concluding my dissertation, I would like to thank all people without whom this
dissertation could not have been given the power to succeed.
First and foremost I would like to thank Prof. Herschbach who gave me the
opportunity to complete this dissertation under his supervision and on a topic that has always
been my favorite and for providing me with all the support and flexibility that I needed during
this time.
I also would like to express my gratitude to Prof. Reinecker for supporting me in
conducting this research and for the kindness, guidance and well thought through comments
regarding my work that he gave me during the entire process.
Moreover, I would like to thank Heribert Sattel for his statistical expertise and for the
emotional support that he gave me, always with a lot of patience and willingness to help.
I am also grateful to the University of Bamberg for the infrastructure and support as
well as flexibility provided.
Finally, I would like to thank my family and my partner David for giving me positive
feedback and encouragement whenever I needed it.





iv Religion and Spirituality as Coping Mechanism with Cancer

Zusammenfassung
Das Ziel dieser Dissertation ist es, den Zusammenhang zwischen Religion und Spiritualität
auf der einen Seite, und der Bewältigung bzw. Umgang mit einer Krankheit auf der anderen
Seite besser zu verstehen. Im Spezifischen untersucht diese Arbeit Religion und Spiritualität
als Bewältigungsmechanismen für eine Krebserkrankung. Dies ist insbesondere für
Krebspatienten wichtig, da die Wissenschaft Religion und Spiritualität als
Bewältigungsmechanismen erforscht hat und die bisherigen Ergebnisse kontrovers sind. Das
vorrangige Ziel dieser Analyse ist es daher, zu verstehen ob Religion und Spiritualität positive
Bewältigungsmechanismen für Krebspatienten sind, und wie dieser Zusammenhang von
Patienteneigenschaften (z.B. Alter, Bildung) oder Krankheitsvariablen (z.B. Krebsart,
Stadium) abhängt. Die Methodik dieser Arbeit ist eine systematische Meta-Analyse
sämtlicher vorhandenen empirischen Studien. Vier wesentliche Ergebnisse ergeben sich aus
dieser Studie. Erstens korreliert Spiritualität bzw. dessen 'Sinn'-Komponente signifikant
positiv mit Lebensqualität und negativ mit emotionalem Stress. Zweitens ist die Korrelation
der 'Sinn'-Komponente von Spiritualität mit Lebensqualität und Emotionalem Stress stärker
als dessen 'Glauben'-Komponente.
Drittens weist generelle Religiosität nur einen schwach bis nicht signifikanten
Zusammenhang mit Lebensqualität und emotionalem Stress auf. Viertens zeigt religiöse
Bewältigung (hauptsächlich negative religiöse Bewältigung) eine signifikant positive
Korrelation mit emotionalem Stress und eine signifikant negative Korrelation mit
Lebensqualität, während positive religiöse Bewältigung keinen signifikanten Zusammenhang
mit den abhängigen Variablen zeigt. Diese Ergebnisse zeigen, dass Spiritualität als positiver
Bewältigungsmechanismus für Krebs angesehen werden kann, insbesondere wenn Patienten
in der Krankheitssituation eine Bedeutung finden können. Für soziodemografische sowie Religion and Spirituality as Coping Mechanism with Cancer v

Krankheits-Charakteristika konnten nur ein teilweise signifikanter, jedoch nicht konsistenter
moderierender Einfluss auf die verschiedenen Zusammenhänge zwischen unabhängigen und
abhängigen Variablen gefunden werden. Der moderierende Einfluss solcher Variablen sollte
daher in Zukunft in direkten empirischen Versuchen und Studien detailliert untersucht
werden.

Stichwörter: Religion, Spiritualität, Krebs, Lebensqualität, emotionaler Stress.
vi Religion and Spirituality as Coping Mechanism with Cancer

Abstract
The aim of the present study is to investigate the existing controversially debated relationship
between religion and spirituality and coping with an illness. Specifically, the study analyzes
religion and spirituality as coping mechanisms with cancer, since for cancer patients in
particular little is known about religion and spirituality as a coping mechanism, in addition to
the very diverse results published so far in the field. The study’s goal is to understand whether
religion or spirituality can be viewed as a positive coping mechanism for cancer patients and
whether this relationship depends on a patient’s specific characteristics (e.g. age, education)
or on the illness characteristics (e.g. cancer type, illness stage). The applied research
methodology is a systematic meta-analysis, a research method that was evaluated as the most
appropriate to ensure that the current research problem is clearly defined and set within the
established context. Four main findings emerged from this research. First, spirituality highly
correlates with augmented quality of life and with reduced emotional distress. Second, the
meaning component of spirituality showed stronger correlations with higher quality of life
and reduced emotional distress in comparison to the faith one. Third, general religiousness
showed weak to non significant correlations with quality of life and emotional distress.
Fourth, negative religious coping showed significant relations with augmented emotional
distress and reduced quality of life while positive religious coping showed non-significant
relationship with the mentioned above dependent variables. The results suggest that
spirituality as a coping mechanism with cancer is a strong positive coping mechanism.
Specifically, constructing a meaning from the illness experience seems to have a powerful
connection with a better psycho-social well being among cancer patients. At the same time,
religion has both positive and negative implication for psycho-social well-being of cancer
patients, depending upon the type of religion as mentioned above. Last, illness and socio-Religion and Spirituality as Coping Mechanism with Cancer vii

demographic variables did not show a consistent pattern of moderation for the effect sizes of
the different dependent-independent variables combination, suggesting that when it comes to
religion and spirituality, situational factors and specific religious and non religious functions,
beliefs and practices need to be taken into account.

Key words: religion, spirituality, cancer, quality of life, emotional distress. viii Religion and Spirituality as Coping Mechanism with Cancer

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................iii
Zusammenfassung..................................................................................................................... iv
Stichwörter: Religion, Spiritualität, Krebs, Lebensqualität, emotionaler Stress........................ v
Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... vi
Key words: religion, spirituality, cancer, quality of life, emotional distress. ..........................vii
Table of Figures ......................................................................................................................... x
Table of Graphs.......................................................................................................................... x
Overview of Tables ...................................................................................................................xi
1. Introduction 1
1.1. Overview............................................................................................................. 1
1.2. Cancer–background ............................................................................................ 3
1.2.1. Cancer–definition ...................................................................................... 3
1.2.2. Cancer–etiology ........................................................................................ 3
1.2.3. Cancer–treatment methods........................................................................ 4
1.2.4. Cancer–distribution around the world (USA and Europe)........................ 4
1.3. Common challenges imposed by the disease...................................................... 6
1.3.1. The physical dimension............................................................................. 6
1.3.2. The psycho-social dimension .........................................