Development and Effects of Posttraumatic Growth Program for Patients with Breast Cancer

초록

Aim:This study was undertaken to identify its effectiveness by applying programs developed on the basis of post-traumatic growth theory of Calhoun, Cann and Tedeschi to improve post-traumatic growth in breast cancer patients. Method:A total of 58 participants were enrolled in this study, with 29 in the experimental group and 29 in the control group. The pre-test was conducted the first day of study participation and the post-test was conducted six weeks after the end of study in both experimental group and control group. The program was designed as six session, 120 minutes with one session per week. The posttraumatic growth program developed in this study consisted of writing and selfreflection for self-analysis, having a conversation and sharing for self-disclosure, and participating in a self-help group for social support. The instruments used for this study were the Event Related Rumination Inventory in Korean, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory. The data were analyzed by X²-test, t-test, Fisher's Exact test, and Mann-Whitney’s U testusing SPSS 23.0.software. Result:The results were as follows:Hypothesis 1: “The experimental group that underwent a posttraumatic growth program will have a lower emotional pain score than that of the control group.” wassupported. Hypothesis 2: “The experimental group that underwent a posttraumatic growth program will have a higher deliberate rumination score than that of the control group.” was supported.Hypothesis 3: “The experimental group that underwent a posttraumatic growth program will have a higher posttraumatic growth score than that of the control group.” was supported.Conclusion:These result show that the posttraumatic growth program which developed in this study for breast cancer patients increased patients’ posttraumatic growth by lowering emotional pain and increasing deliberate rumination.