Trajectories of Cancer Survivors' Spiritual Well-Being Through the Transition From Treatment to Early Survivorship

Spirituality is an important domain of well-being for cancer survivors, yet we know little about the different trajectories of survivors' spiritual well-being across the transition from active treatment to survivorship. Further, the specific psychosocial resources and coping efforts that might predict distinct trajectories of spiritual well-being have yet to be identified.

In this study, we characterized trajectories of survivors' spiritual well-being (peace, meaning, faith) across the first year of survivorship and examined whether social support and coping strategies predicted these trajectories.

Participants (N = 482) completed five surveys over the course of a year following a diagnosis of breast (63.5%), prostate (25.7%), or colorectal cancer (10.8%). We used latent class linear mixed modeling to identify spiritual well-being trajectory classes (FACIT-Sp) and employed multinomial logistic regression models to examine whether social support and specific coping styles predicted class membership.

While the majority of our sample had moderate levels of spiritual well-being, over one-third reported very low levels of peace. Distinct latent classes for peace (four classes), meaning (five classes), and faith (five classes) were identified among adult cancer survivors transitioning from treatment to survivorship. Higher social support and adaptive coping predicted greater likelihood of belonging to classes that maintained higher levels of peace, meaning, and faith following cancer treatment.

Cancer survivors show unique trajectories of spiritual well-being as they transition from active treatment to survivorship. Social support and coping may be important resources for maintaining spiritual well-being during this critical transition period.