 “You Can’t Influence Illness, But You Can Influence Everything Elseâ€: Women’s Diverse Experiences of Important Resilience Aspects in the Context of Breast CancerKatarina Velickovic, Per Johnsson, Johanna MÃ¥nsson and Tove Lundberg SAGE Open, 2024, vol. 14, issue 4, 21582440241292710 Abstract: Resilience comprises positive adaptation to stress and has been extensively studied in the context of breast cancer. Nevertheless, specific experiences of breast cancer survivors in relation to resilience are unknown. The aim of this study was to explore the diverse experiences of important resilience aspects in breast cancer survivors. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 25 breast cancer survivors residing in Sweden. We used thematic analysis to analyze the data. We identified three themes relevant for resilience, each containing several subthemes: “I will try to keep the spirits up†: Struggling with agency in the face of uncontrollability, “You know that you are not alone†: Social support and collective survivorship for better and for worse, and “I try to leave that behind me†: Conceptualizing cancer as a closed chapter or a constant. Thus, having agency in relation to one’s thoughts, feelings, treatment, health, and daily functioning, having support from others, and conceptualizing breast cancer as a closed chapter were interpreted as important aspects of resilience. Keywords: breast cancer; resilience; qualitative study; thematic analysis; agency (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:sagope:v:14:y:2024:i:4:p:21582440241292710 DOI: 10.1177/21582440241292710 Access Statistics for this article More articles in SAGE Open |
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