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Quality Over Quantity 
Coping with a cancer diagnosis isn’t easy for anyone, but a new study finds that as a woman’s quality of life increases over time, coming to terms with breast cancer requires fewer coping mechanisms. “It is generally assumed that coping strategies impact quality of life, with more active coping strategies generally associated with better quality of life,” says Suzanne C. Danhauer, Ph.D., assistant professor at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, Winston-Salem, N.C., and lead investigator of these analyses. “This research examined coping strategies over time and the reciprocal relationship between coping strategies and quality of life among younger women with breast cancer to see if the opposite might be true – that quality of life determines the use of coping strategies.” The study focused on 267 women with breast cancer, with a mean age of 43 years, who completed surveys within six months of diagnosis and follow-up surveys six weeks and six months later. Researchers discovered that the coping strategies in younger women changed over time. Seeking social support, spirituality, wishful thinking and making changes decreased over time and detachment increased, all leading to positive cognitive restructuring (reinterpreting something stressful as positive or helpful), which was the most frequently used coping strategy. Keeping feelings to oneself was the least used coping strategy and its use remained consistently low over time. Those reporting a poorer quality of life were more likely to use multiple coping strategies at subsequent time points. This finding suggests that people adapt their coping strategies in response to problems with which they are dealing. As quality of life increased, fewer coping mechanisms were needed. “We emphasize, however, that this finding is suggestive and not definitive,” Danhauer says. “The relationship between coping strategies and quality of life is complicated and future studies should examine this reciprocal relationship.”
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