Psychological flexibility and coping behaviors in cervical cancer patients: Moderating role of illness perception

Table 1 General and clinical characteristics of the participants (n = 216)

Characteristics	Categories	n (%)
Age (years, mean ± SD)	53.64 ± 8.25 (35-72)	-
Education level	Primary school or below	68 (31.48)
	Junior high school	82 (37.96)
	High school or above	66 (30.56)
Marital status	Married	185 (85.65)
	Unmarried/divorced/widowed	31 (14.35)
Disease duration (years, mean ± SD)	2.35 ± 1.02 (1-5)	-
FIGO stage	I-II	132 (61.11)
	III-IV	84 (38.89)
Histopathological type	Squamous cell carcinoma	187 (86.57)
	Adenocarcinoma	23 (10.65)
	Other rare types	6 (2.78)
Treatment status	Undergoing active treatment	124 (57.41)
	Post-treatment follow-up	92 (42.59)
Treatment modality	Surgery alone	41 (18.98)
	Surgery + chemotherapy/radiotherapy	119 (55.09)
	Chemoradiotherapy alone	49 (22.69)
	Palliative care	7 (3.24)
Monthly family income (RMB)	< 3000	52 (24.07)
	3000-5000	94 (43.52)
	> 5000	70 (32.41)
Medical insurance	Basic medical insurance	197 (91.2)
	Commercial insurance/self-funded	19 (8.8)

FIGO: International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics.

Table 2 Scores of psychological flexibility, cancer coping behaviors and illness perception, mean ± SD

Variables	Number of entries	Total score range	Actual score	Dimension mean score
Psychological flexibility	24	24-44	65.32 ± 10.25	2.72 ± 0.43
Cancer coping behaviors	28	28-112	64.10 ± 14.43	2.29 ± 0.52
Positive coping	16	16-64	38.67 ± 7.54	2.42 ± 0.47
Negative coping	12	12-48	25.43 ± 6.89	2.12 ± 0.57
Illness perception	8	0-80	42.15 ± 8.36	3.51 ± 0.69

Table 3 Pearson correlation analysis of key variables (n = 216)

Variables	Psychological flexibility	Positive coping	Negative coping	Illness perception
Psychological flexibility	1	0.452a	-0.387a	-0.298a
Positive coping	0.452a	1	-0.123	-0.087
Negative coping	-0.387a	-0.123	1	0.324a
Illness perception	-0.298a	-0.087	0.324a	1

^aP < 0.01.

Table 4 Results of hierarchical regression analysis of the moderating effect

Dependent variables	Step of regression	Predictor variables	β	SE	t	R²	ΔR squared	ΔF
Positive coping	1	Demographic variables	-	-	1.56	0.028	0.028	1.56
	2	Psychological flexibility	0.396	0.062	6.39b	0.202	0.174	42.35b
	3	Illness perception	-0.075	0.065	-1.15	0.207	0.005	1.23
	4	Psychological flexibility × illness perception	0.093	0.063	1.48	0.216	0.009	2.15
Negative coping	1	Demographic variables	-	-	1.32	0.024	0.024	1.32
	2	Psychological flexibility	-0.342	0.058	5.89b	0.156	0.132	35.67b
	3	Illness perception	0.285	0.061	4.67b	0.234	0.078	18.45b
	4	Psychological flexibility × illness perception	0.187	0.072	2.60a	0.261	0.027	6.78a

^aP < 0.05.

^bP < 0.01.