Emerging Adult and Young Adult Cancer Survivors: Exploring Coping, Parental Care and Control, and Spirituality

Abstract

Due to medical advances and higher success rates in cancer treatments, more emerging and young adults live with this chronic condition. However, how this population copes with cancer is understudied, therefore the current study investigates coping strategies in this population. Two hundred and ten emerging and young adult cancer survivors recruited from online social media sites completed an online survey and reported on their coping strategies, perception of parental attitudes, spiritual beliefs, and open-ended coping questions. While many participants use different behaviors in their coping with cancer, approximately 48% of participations reported to cope adaptively highly using “acceptance”, “humor”, “positive reframing”, and “active coping”. Thirty-five percent of participants reported to cope maladaptively with high use of “distraction” and “self-blame” behaviors in their coping strategies. Correlation analysis revealed many significant associations between study variables, highlighting the importance of both Maternal and Paternal Care and perception of Maternal Control in coping. The regression analysis indicated that older age, recent treatment, higher levels of perceived parental care, and higher emphasis on spirituality were predictive of adaptive coping in this population. Practical implications and recommendations for clinicians and health professionals working with emerging and young adult cancer survivors are discussed.