Associations Between Cancer-Related Self-Efficacy, Coping Styles, and Perceived Stress in Patients with Lung Cancer: A Cross-Sectional Mediation Analysis

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dc.abstract.enLung cancer carries a substantial psychosocial burden, frequently involving elevated psychological distress, disease-related stigma, and difficulties in adaptation to illness. Coping styles and self-efficacy are both recognized as relevant personal resources in chronic illness, but their combined statistical association with perceived stress, and specifically whether self-efficacy accounts for part of the association between coping and stress, has not been examined in lung cancer patients. Objective: This study examined the statistical associations between coping styles (task-, emotion-, and avoidance-oriented), cancer-related self-efficacy, and perceived stress, testing cancer-related self-efficacy as a mediator of each coping style’s association with perceived stress, and additionally compared these variables by gender. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among ninety-seven patients diagnosed with lung cancer. Standardized measures included the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations, a cancer-specific adaptation of the Generalized Self-Efficacy Scale, and the Perceived Stress Scale. A series of three simple mediation analyses was performed to evaluate the proposed statistical model. Results: Task-oriented coping was positively, and emotion-oriented coping negatively, associated with cancer-related self-efficacy; avoidance-oriented coping showed no significant association with self-efficacy. Task- and emotion-oriented coping were significantly associated with perceived stress in the expected directions, while avoidance-oriented coping was not. Cancer-related self-efficacy significantly, and partially, mediated the association between task-oriented coping and perceived stress; no significant indirect effect was found for emotion- or avoidance-oriented coping. Women reported significantly higher perceived stress and greater use of emotion-oriented coping than men, with no significant gender differences in self-efficacy or the other coping styles. Conclusions: In this cross-sectional sample, cancer-related self-efficacy was statistically associated with lower perceived stress specifically through its association with task-oriented coping, whereas the association between emotion-oriented coping and stress appeared largely independent of self-efficacy. These findings suggest that coping styles are associated with perceived stress through at least partly distinct mechanisms and support attention to both active coping and self-efficacy beliefs in psychosocial care for lung cancer patients, while findings regarding gender differences warrant further, formally tested investigation.
dc.affiliationInstytut Psychologii Wydział Psychologii w Warszawie • Katedra Psychologii Ekonomicznej i Biznesu
dc.affiliationWydział Psychologii w Warszawie
dc.contributor.authorPoręba-Chabros, Agata
dc.contributor.authorKolańska-Stronka, Magdalena
dc.contributor.authorFarnicka, Marzanna
dc.date.access2026-08-28
dc.date.accessioned2026-09-11T12:26:00Z
dc.date.available2026-09-11T12:26:00Z
dc.date.created2026-08-24
dc.date.issued2026-08-28
dc.description.abstract<jats:p>Lung cancer carries a substantial psychosocial burden, frequently involving elevated psychological distress, disease-related stigma, and difficulties in adaptation to illness. Coping styles and self-efficacy are both recognized as relevant personal resources in chronic illness, but their combined statistical association with perceived stress, and specifically whether self-efficacy accounts for part of the association between coping and stress, has not been examined in lung cancer patients. Objective: This study examined the statistical associations between coping styles (task-, emotion-, and avoidance-oriented), cancer-related self-efficacy, and perceived stress, testing cancer-related self-efficacy as a mediator of each coping style’s association with perceived stress, and additionally compared these variables by gender. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among ninety-seven patients diagnosed with lung cancer. Standardized measures included the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations, a cancer-specific adaptation of the Generalized Self-Efficacy Scale, and the Perceived Stress Scale. A series of three simple mediation analyses was performed to evaluate the proposed statistical model. Results: Task-oriented coping was positively, and emotion-oriented coping negatively, associated with cancer-related self-efficacy; avoidance-oriented coping showed no significant association with self-efficacy. Task- and emotion-oriented coping were significantly associated with perceived stress in the expected directions, while avoidance-oriented coping was not. Cancer-related self-efficacy significantly, and partially, mediated the association between task-oriented coping and perceived stress; no significant indirect effect was found for emotion- or avoidance-oriented coping. Women reported significantly higher perceived stress and greater use of emotion-oriented coping than men, with no significant gender differences in self-efficacy or the other coping styles. Conclusions: In this cross-sectional sample, cancer-related self-efficacy was statistically associated with lower perceived stress specifically through its association with task-oriented coping, whereas the association between emotion-oriented coping and stress appeared largely independent of self-efficacy. These findings suggest that coping styles are associated with perceived stress through at least partly distinct mechanisms and support attention to both active coping and self-efficacy beliefs in psychosocial care for lung cancer patients, while findings regarding gender differences warrant further, formally tested investigation.</jats:p>
dc.description.accesstimeat_publication
dc.description.issue17
dc.description.physical1-22
dc.description.sdgGoodHealthAndWellBeing
dc.description.versionfinal_published
dc.description.volume15
dc.identifier.doi10.3390/jcm15176674
dc.identifier.issn2077-0383
dc.identifier.urihttps://share.swps.edu.pl/handle/swps/2519
dc.identifier.weblinkhttps://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/15/17/6674
dc.languageen
dc.pbn.affiliationpsychologia
dc.rightsCC-BY
dc.rights.questionYes_rights
dc.share.articleOPEN_JOURNAL
dc.subject.enlung cancer
dc.subject.encancer-related self-efficacy
dc.subject.enperceived stress
dc.subject.encoping styles
dc.swps.sciencecloudsend
dc.titleAssociations Between Cancer-Related Self-Efficacy, Coping Styles, and Perceived Stress in Patients with Lung Cancer: A Cross-Sectional Mediation Analysis
dc.title.journalJournal of Clinical Medicine
dc.typeJournalArticle
dspace.entity.typeArticle