Background/Purpose Diagnosis with breast cancer recurrence
often brings high levels of stress. Successful coping
to alleviate stress could improve patients’ quality of life
(QoL). The intervening role coping plays between stress
and QoL may depend on the types of stress encountered
and the types of coping strategies used. The present study
investigates the longitudinal relationships between stress,
coping, and mental health QoL.
Methods Breast cancer patients recently diagnosed with
recurrence (N=65) were assessed shortly after the diagnosis
and 4 months later. Four moderation and four mediation
models were tested using hierarchical multiple regressions
and path analyses. In the models, either traumatic stress or
symptom-related stress at recurrence diagnosis was a
predictor of mental health QoL at follow-up. Both
engagement and disengagement coping strategies were
tested as moderators or mediators between stress and QoL.
Results Engagement coping moderated the effect of symptom
stress on mental health QoL, whereas disengagement
coping mediated the effects of both traumatic stress and
symptom stress on mental health QoL.
Conclusion The findings imply that interventions teaching
engagement coping strategies would be important for
patients experiencing high symptom stress, while discouraging
the use of disengagement coping strategies would be
important for all patients.