Highlights
- •The situation resulting from cancer disrupts the balance in family dynamics.
- •Cohesion, disengagement, enmeshment, and satisfaction do not impact FCR severity.
- •Balanced family flexibility and higher communication level decrease FCR severity.
- •While rigid family functioning does not impact FCR, chaotic functioning increases it.
Abstract
Objective
To explore the links between family functioning—in terms of cohesion, flexibility,
and communication—and the fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) in a sample of breast cancer
survivors of Lebanese women.
Methods
This was a cross-sectional study among 62 Lebanese adult women (mean age: 51.0 ± 8.29
years; years since diagnosis: 7.19 ± 7.06) in remission, included via convenience
and snowball sampling. A multicomponent questionnaire, encompassing socio-demographic
and medical questions, the “Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale,” the
“Family communication scale,” and the “Family satisfaction scale” (FACES IV) and the
short version of the “Fear of Cancer Recurrence Inventory” (FCRI–SF), was used. Descriptive,
bivariate, and multivariate analyses were conducted. A p-value<0.01 was used to indicate
statistical significance.
Results
On average, FCR was clinically non-significant (12.31 ± 7.76). The sample had a low
disengagement (20.01 ± 4.83), very low enmeshment (19.68 ± 4.57), very low rigid operation
(21.7 ± 4.26), very low chaotic functioning (16.43 ± 4.48), high family communication
level (38.78 ± 7.96), connected balanced cohesion (28.18 ± 5.47), very flexible balanced
flexibility (26.81 ± 4.56), and low level of family satisfaction (34.53 ± 8.04). A
very low chaotic functioning in the family (B = −11.37, Beta = −0.49, 99%CI = −19.54,
−3.19), very high and low communication (B = −6.04, Beta = −0.33, 99%CI = −11.42,
−0.67; B = −11.85, Beta = −0.46, 99%CI = −20.13, −3.58, respectively), very flexible
balanced flexibility (B = −10.36, Beta = −0.67, 99%CI = −15.77, −4.94) and younger
age (B = −0.31, Beta = −0.37, 99%CI = −0.59, −0.04) predicted a lower FCR score.
Conclusion
Balanced flexibility and the quality of communication within the family were associated
with a decreased FCR, while chaotic family functioning increased FCR severity. Cohesion,
disengagement, enmeshment, and family satisfaction did not impact the severity of
FCR.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: July 02, 2022
Accepted:
June 30,
2022
Received in revised form:
June 6,
2022
Received:
February 4,
2022
Identification
Copyright
© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
