 Breast cancer: Varied perceptions of social support in the illness experienceHolly Peters-Golden Social Science & Medicine, 1982, vol. 16, issue 4, 483-491 Abstract: Social support has been identified as an important factor in cancer. However, the stigma associated with cancer often leads to avoidance behavior and withdrawal of support. This investigation examines percieved social support in a population of 100 breast cancer patients, and anticipated social support among 100 disease-free individuals. Results demonstrate that healthy individuals report assignment of stigma and avoidance behavior directed towards cancer patients, yet they believe they themselves would have a dense network of support to call upon if stricken with cancer. Patients report nonmaterialization of expected support networks, and decreased adjustment due to this subjective experience. In addition, patients assert that the support extended to them is often inappropriate in nature, due to the mistaken assumption on the part of healthy individuals that the most salient concern of a mastectomized woman is the loss of her breast, rather than the fact that she has cancer. Date: 1982 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:16:y:1982:i:4:p:483-491 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.