Abstract

VARELA, Margarida  and  LEAL, Isabel. Estratégias de copingem mulheres com cancro da mama. Aná. Psicológica [online]. 2007, vol.25, n.3, pp.479-488. ISSN 0870-8231.

Coping is the combination of cognitive and behavioural strategies developed by the subject to deal with the internal and external demands that are evaluated as extreme and the emotional reactions caused by these demands. The present exploratory study had the main aim to determine the coping strategies used for women with breast cancer, taking into consideration the implications of some variables that characterized the sample. The Mini-Mental Adjustment to Cancer Scale (Pais-Ribeiro, Ramos & Samico, 2003) was applied to a sample of 84 patients (age M=47,86; dp=9,28) with breast cancer. The results showed that the strategies of coping used more often were the Fighting Spirit and Fatalism. Its possible conclude that the strategies of coping focused in the emotion or focused in the resolution of the problem are not mutually exclusives and indicate that the women with breast cancer use the two styles of coping strategies to deal with the disease. It’s necessary to continue the investigations about the use of different strategies of coping in the different moments of the evolution of the disease.

Keywords : Coping; breast cancer patients.

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