The report of posttraumatic growth in Malaysian cancer patients: relationships with psychological distress and coping strategies
Open accessAbstract
Objective: The challenge of a cancer diagnosis may eventually lead to the experience of positive psychological changes, also referred to as posttraumatic growth. As most research on posttraumatic growth in cancer patients has been conducted in Western countries, little is known about the experience of such positive psychological changes in non‐Western countries. Therefore, the purpose of this cross‐sectional study was to investigate the prevalence of posttraumatic growth in a Malaysian sample of cancer patients. Secondly, we examined the association of posttraumatic growth with patients' report of psychological distress and their use of coping strategies. Methods: The study was conducted in 113 cancer patients. Posttraumatic growth was measured by the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory, coping strategies by the brief COPE, and psychological distress by the Symptom Check List (SCL‐90‐R). Results: Results showed that many patients reported posttraumatic growth, mostly in the domain of appreciation of life. As hypothesized, the experience of posttraumatic growth was not significantly related to the level of psychological distress. Findings indicated that greater use of the coping strategies instrumental support, positive reframing, and humor was associated with more posttraumatic growth. Conclusion: Overall, this study suggests that posttraumatic growth is not only a Western phenomenon. Malaysian cancer patients show similar trends in the report of growth as well as in its correlates as their Western counterparts. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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The experience of post-traumatic growth may be linked to individual coping strategies for stress, including religious or spiritual coping and positive reframing.
“Again, the experience of posttraumatic growth may be linked to individual coping strategies for stress (Peters et al., 2021), including religious or spiritual coping and positive reframing (Prati & Pietrantoni, 2009; Schroevers & Teo, 2008).”
From Traumatic Events, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and Post-Traumatic Growth among University Students in Kabul City (2025) · cites this paper as Schroevers & Teo, 2008
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“In order to Copyright r 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Psycho-Oncology (2008) DOI: 10.1002/pon.1366 characterize the most common types of posttraumatic growth, PTGI items were dichotomized into: 0 5 item endorsed ‘not at all’ to ‘small degree’ (answer rating 0, 1, or 2) and 1 5 item endorsed ‘moderate degree’ to ‘very g…”
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- Authors
- Schroevers, M. J., & Teo, I.
- Affiliations
- University Medical Center Groningen (NL)
- University of Houston (US)
- Corresponding author
- Schroevers, Maya J.
- Venue
- Psycho-Oncology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2008-11-25
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 1239-1246
- ISSN
- 1057-9249 (ISSN-L)
- 1099-1611
- OpenAlex
- W1968389671
- Cited by
- 105
- References
- 9
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 12
- FWCI
- 2.44
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Psycho-Oncology (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- University of Groningen research database (University of Groningen / Centre for Information Technology) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Cancer survivorship and care
- Social Sciences › Health › Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Resilience and Mental Health
- Keywords
- posttraumatic growth, cancer patients, psychological distress, coping strategies, Malaysian patients, appreciation of life, instrumental support, positive reframing, humor, cross-cultural comparison
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Psychological, Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Attitude to Health, Depressive Disorder, Female, Humans, Malaysia, Male, Middle Aged, Neoplasms, Quality of Life, Surveys and Questionnaires, Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic, Young Adult
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