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. 2021 Jun;44(3):355-367.
doi: 10.1007/s10865-021-00200-6. Epub 2021 Jan 28.

The association between psychological functioning and social support and social constraint after cancer diagnosis: a 30-day daily diary study

Jessica N Rivera-Rivera  1 , Christal L Badour  1 , Jessica L Burris  2   3
Affiliations

The association between psychological functioning and social support and social constraint after cancer diagnosis: a 30-day daily diary study

Jessica N Rivera-Rivera et al. J Behav Med. 2021 Jun.

Abstract

This study evaluated one positive and one negative aspect of social functioning (social support and social constraint, respectively) to increase understanding of its relation to psychological functioning (distress and wellbeing) after cancer diagnosis. Participants in this longitudinal study were recently diagnosed, predominately late stage, first primary cancer survivors (n = 48). Data collection involved a 30-day period of daily assessment. Data were analyzed using multilevel linear models. As in prior studies, none of the variables changed significantly over time (ps = .07 to .99). Based on the intraclass correlation coefficient, 51 to 75% of the variance in the daily assessment data are attributable to between-person differences. There was a positive relationship between social constraint and both general and cancer-specific distress (ps < .05) and between social support and cancer-specific wellbeing (ps < .001). In prospective models, higher than average general distress predicted higher social support the next day (p = .004) and higher than average cancer-specific wellbeing predicted more social constraint the next day (p = .01). The findings lend some support to the interdependence of social functioning and psychological functioning after cancer diagnosis.

Keywords: Cancer; Daily diary; Distress; Social constraint; Social support; Wellbeing.

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Conflict of interest statement

All authors contributed to the study conception and design, material preparation, data collection and analysis, and manuscript writing. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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