[Does coping improve emotional adjustment? Results of a longitudinal study with bronchial carcinoma patients]

Coping research has been able to identify some maladaptive coping behaviours, but only little is known about favorable modes of adaptation. These findings have raised the issue of circularity, i.e. the question as to whether depressive ways of coping are actually the cause or rather the effect of emotional distress, whether those correlations reflect different aspects of psychological distress, or, even worse, confounded measures. Cross-sectional correlations are unable to solve this problem. The present study applies cross-lagged multiple regression analysis within a panel design. N = 120 newly diagnosed lung cancer patients who were admitted to a large tumor centre are included in the sample. Patients are assessed by self-reports and interviewer-ratings on measures of psychological adjustment (distress, hope) and coping (active confrontation, arguing with one's fate, consolation, distancing) at three times: Time 1 pre-treatment, Time 2 post-treatment, Time 3 recurrence. Results pertaining to the course of the measures of adjustment and coping are presented. Systematic deteriorating effects can be reveiled only at time 3. Stability coefficients prove to be lower than expected, especially with respect to the longer time interval. The cross-lagged pane 1 design allows testing alternative causal models. The time 1- time 2 results show, that arguing with one's fate may lead to future emotional distress, whereas hope is connected with reduced future arguing with one's fate. These short term findings are confirmed in the prediction of the time 3-data. In addition, consolation seems to have a negative impact on hope in the long term.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)