Work Interrupted: A Questionnaire Assessing the Relationship Between Work-Related Distress and Psychological Adjustment to Cancer
Year: 2011
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Cancer is an increasingly survivable disease that significantly impacts the ability of individuals to negotiate successfully the developmental task most distinctly affiliated with middle adulthood: creating meaning through achievement, creativity, and service.For many adults, these goals are accomplished through employment.When cancer intrudes, patients may be deprived of the ability to participate fully in the "generativity" that developmental psychologist Erik Erikson deemed essential to a healthy adulthood.In qualitative studies, patients' narratives speak of many work-related losses -of routine, normality, economic stability, social connection, purpose, and identity.While psychosocial issues and quality of life are viewed with increasing importance within the literature on cancer, there appears to be a paucity of quantitative data on the work-related distress alluded to in these studies.Building on themes from qualitative literature and personal therapeutic encounters, a work distress survey was developed and administered to 74 adult patients treated for cancer at a community cancer center.A strong association was found between work-related distress and negative -but not positivepsychological adjustment to cancer.A cluster of items related to diminution of the structural functions of work -a means of organizing the day, staving off boredom, and providing individuals with a sense of
Authors: Bates Freed, A Betsy
Institution: Antioch University
Language: English
Topic: Cancer survivorship and care
Subfield: Oncology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1540799570