Congress Abstracts 2004

21

COPING STRATEGIES AND PERCEIVED STRESSORS IN CHINESE AMERICANS WITH CANCER. Virginia Sun, MSN, RN, City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, CA; Mary Tish Knobf, RN, PhD, FAAN, AOCN^®, Yale University School of Nursing, New Haven, CT.

The burden of cancer on minority populations has led to continued health disparities in the United States. A complex relationship exists between race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status in relation to the cancer experience. The purpose of this descriptive study was to identify coping strategies and perceived stressors in Chinese Americans with cancer.

The theoretical framework used is Lazarus and Folkman’s theory of stress and coping. Coping is used as a primary mechanism to adapt to a stressful situation such as illness. Lazarus proposed two types of coping mechanisms: problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping.

This descriptive study recruited a sample size of 12 Chinese Americans with cancer residing in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area. Data was collected from June–August 2001 using the Revised Jalowiec Coping Scale and face-to-face interviews. The Revised Jalowiec Coping Scale was designed to measure coping behaviors. Cronbach’s alpha reliability was .86. Qualitative data was collected using open-ended questions that elicited participants’ perceived stressors since diagnoses. The data collection procedure began with the completion of the Revised Jalowiec Coping Scale followed by interview using open-ended questions.

Data were entered and analyzed using the Statistical Analysis System (SAS) program. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze for all coping behaviors in the Revised Jalowiec Coping Scale to determine frequency and effectiveness of each item. Qualitative data was analyzed using content analysis techniques, and themes from the data were identified.

Participants were primarily female (58.3%), with breast cancer (33.3%), and college educated (75%). Age ranged from 44–82, with a mean of 61. Styles of coping most frequently used by participants were the confrontive and self-reliant styles. Perceived stressors included fear of recurrence, uncertainty, loss of control, treatment disabilities, financial burdens, language barriers, and fear of abandonment. Findings indicate that Chinese Americans with cancer used self-reliance as a coping strategy and found issues such as language barriers stressful. Further research is warranted to advance knowledge of the specific coping strategies utilized among culturally diverse populations.