IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v71y2010i7p1285-1291.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Cancer and mastery: Do age and cohort matter?

Author

Listed:
  • Pudrovska, Tetyana

Abstract

The prevailing lay and medical views of cancer as an uncontrollable and unpredictable disease raise a question about the effect of cancer on personal mastery. Does cancer undermine individuals' beliefs? Are cancer survivors more likely than persons without cancer to feel that life is beyond their control? Using data from the 1994-1995 and 2004-2006 waves of the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States, I compared cancer survivors and individuals without cancer to examine the association between cancer and personal mastery. According to the stress process perspective, cancer may be detrimental to personal mastery, whereas the positive catalyst perspective suggests that cancer can enhance mastery. When changes in personal mastery are placed in the joint context of developmental aging processes and socio-cultural transformations reflected in the experiences of birth cohorts, support is found for both perspectives. In the three oldest cohorts born between 1920s and 1940s, personal mastery declines with age for all participants regardless of their cancer status. Yet, this age-related decline is steeper among cancer survivors than their peers without cancer. In the two youngest cohorts born in the 1950s and 1960s, individuals without cancer have a higher level of personal mastery than cancer survivors, yet cancer survivors exhibit a more pronounced increase in mastery with age than persons without cancer. This study suggests that a life course framework can enhance our understanding of cancer-related changes in personal mastery because the life course perspective integrates a psychological focus on adult development and aging with a sociological focus on socio-historical and cultural contexts.

Suggested Citation

  • Pudrovska, Tetyana, 2010. "Cancer and mastery: Do age and cohort matter?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(7), pages 1285-1291, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:71:y:2010:i:7:p:1285-1291
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(10)00526-5
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kaiser, Karen, 2008. "The meaning of the survivor identity for women with breast cancer," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 79-87, July.
    2. Clarke, Juanne N. & Everest, Michelle M., 2006. "Cancer in the mass print media: Fear, uncertainty and the medical model," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(10), pages 2591-2600, May.
    3. Fredric D. Wolinsky & Kathleen W. Wyrwich & Ajit N. Babu & Kurt Kroenke & William M. Tierney, 2003. "Age, Aging, and the Sense of Control Among Older Adults: A Longitudinal Reconsideration," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 58(4), pages 212-220.
    4. Ross, Catherine E. & Mirowsky, John, 2008. "Age and the balance of emotions," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(12), pages 2391-2400, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bell, Kirsten, 2014. "The breast-cancer-ization of cancer survivorship: Implications for experiences of the disease," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 56-63.
    2. Octave Jokung & Serge Macé, 2013. "Long-term health investment when people underestimate their adaptation to old age-related health problems," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 14(6), pages 1003-1013, December.
    3. Thomas Schofield & Melissa Merrick & Chia-Feng Chen, 2016. "Reciprocal Associations between Neighborhood Context and Parent Investments: Selection Effects in Two Longitudinal Samples," Working Papers wp16-08-ff, Princeton University, School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing..
    4. Mrig, Emily Hammad & Spencer, Karen Lutfey, 2018. "Political economy of hope as a cultural facet of biomedicalization: A qualitative examination of constraints to hospice utilization among U.S. end-stage cancer patients," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 107-113.
    5. Joseph W Taylor & Marie Long & Elizabeth Ashley & Alex Denning & Beatrice Gout & Kayleigh Hansen & Thomas Huws & Leifa Jennings & Sinead Quinn & Patrick Sarkies & Alex Wojtowicz & Philip M Newton, 2015. "When Medical News Comes from Press Releases—A Case Study of Pancreatic Cancer and Processed Meat," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(6), pages 1-13, June.
    6. Heard, Claire Louise & Rakow, Tim, 2022. "Examining insensitivity to probability in evidence‐based communication of relative risks: the role of affect and communication format," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 113810, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. Quincey, Kerry & Williamson, Iain & Winstanley, Sue, 2016. "‘Marginalised malignancies’: A qualitative synthesis of men's accounts of living with breast cancer," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 17-25.
    8. Amy Rudge & Kristen Foley & Belinda Lunnay & Emma R. Miller & Samantha Batchelor & Paul R. Ward, 2021. "How Are the Links between Alcohol Consumption and Breast Cancer Portrayed in Australian Newspapers?: A Paired Thematic and Framing Media Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(14), pages 1-18, July.
    9. Smit, Anri & Coetzee, Bronwynè Jo’sean & Roomaney, Rizwana & Bradshaw, Melissa & Swartz, Leslie, 2019. "Women's stories of living with breast cancer: A systematic review and meta-synthesis of qualitative evidence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 222(C), pages 231-245.
    10. Lowton, Karen & Hiley, Chris & Higgs, Paul, 2017. "Constructing embodied identity in a ‘new’ ageing population: A qualitative study of the pioneer cohort of childhood liver transplant recipients in the UK," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 1-9.
    11. Jae-Mahn Shim, 2022. "Patient Agency: Manifestations of Individual Agency Among People With Health Problems," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(1), pages 21582440221, March.
    12. Maciej Pastwa & Kamil K. Imbir & Adrianna Wielgopolan & Ernest Adach, 2023. "Predictors of Feeling of Threat Caused by COVID-19 Pandemic, the Distinctive Effects of Automatic vs. Reflective Emotions," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(7), pages 1-15, March.
    13. Macdonald, Sara & Conway, Elaine & Bikker, Annemieke & Browne, Susan & Robb, Kathryn & Campbell, Christine & Steele, Robert JC. & Weller, David & Macleod, Una, 2019. "Making sense of bodily sensations: Do shared cancer narratives influence symptom appraisal?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 223(C), pages 31-39.
    14. Dyer, Karen E., 2015. "“Surviving is not the same as living”: Cancer and Sobrevivencia in Puerto Rico," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 20-29.
    15. Lisa McCann & Nicola Illingworth & Yvonne Wengström & Gill Hubbard & Nora Kearney, 2010. "Transitional experiences of women with breast cancer within the first year following diagnosis," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(13‐14), pages 1969-1976, July.
    16. Alex Coad, 2018. "Firm age: a survey," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 13-43, January.
    17. Uchechi A Mitchell & Jennifer A Ailshire & Lauren L Brown & Morgan E Levine & Eileen M Crimmins, 2018. "Education and Psychosocial Functioning Among Older Adults: 4-Year Change in Sense of Control and Hopelessness," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 73(5), pages 849-859.
    18. Massimo Baù & Philipp Sieger & Kimberly A. Eddleston & Francesco Chirico, 2017. "Fail but Try Again? The Effects of Age, Gender, and Multiple–Owner Experience on Failed Entrepreneurs’ Reentry," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 41(6), pages 909-941, November.
    19. Granek, Leeat & Fergus, Karen, 2012. "Resistance, agency, and liminality in women's accounts of symptom appraisal and help-seeking upon discovery of a breast irregularity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(10), pages 1753-1761.
    20. Samantha Dockray & Nina Grant & Arthur Stone & Daniel Kahneman & Jane Wardle & Andrew Steptoe, 2010. "A Comparison of Affect Ratings Obtained with Ecological Momentary Assessment and the Day Reconstruction Method," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 99(2), pages 269-283, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:71:y:2010:i:7:p:1285-1291. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.