ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Public Mental Health
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1679697
This article is part of the Research TopicInnovations in Psychological Care for Oncology and Palliative Settings: A Holistic ApproachView all 10 articles
The Impact of Illness Perception on Self-Transcendence in Gastric Cancer Patients Undergoing Chemotherapy: the chain mediating effect of Hope Levels and Coping Styles1
Provisionally accepted
- 1Jiangnan University, Wuxi, China
- 2Wuxi No 2 People's Hospital, Wuxi, China
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Objective To investigate the current status of illness perception, hope levels, coping styles, and self-transcendence among gastric cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, and to explore the chain-mediating role of hope levels and coping styles in illness perception and self-transcendence. Methods This study is a cross-sectional study. A convenience sampling method was used to select 507 gastric cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy from a tertiary hospital in Wuxi City, China, from October 2024 to May 2025. A questionnaire survey was conducted using Demographic Characteristics Questionnaire, Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire, Herth Hope Index, Medical Coping Modes Questionnaire, and Self-Transcendence Scale. Data were analysed by SPSS 27.0, R Studio and Amos 24.0. 1 the number of words:4238 the number of tables:3 the number of figures:4 Results The mean scores for illness perception, hope levels, confrontation, avoidance, yield and self-transcendence were 42.79 ± 9.30, 34.10 ± 9.21, 24.50 ± 9.51, 20.69 ± 6.30, 14.70 ± 4.61 and 44.08±10.38, respectively. The importance ranking of the random forest model was: illness perception, avoidance, confrontation, hope levels, self-rated health status and yield. The mediation model analysis indicated that illness perception had a significant direct effect on self-transcendence (confrontation, avoidance, and yield dimensions: 55.47%, 56.04%, 53.73%), the independent mediating effect of hope levels (30.90%, 32.13%, 32.05%), the independent mediating effect of coping styles (6.81%, 6.28%, 7.95%), and the chain mediating effect of hope levels and coping styles (6.81%, 5.85%, 6.27%). Conclusion Illness perception directly influences self-transcendence in gastric cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, indirectly influences self-transcendence through the mediating effects of hope levels, coping styles, and the chain mediating effect of hope levels and coping styles.
Keywords: Chemotherapy patients, Coping styles, gastric cancer, Hope levels, illness perception, Mediating effect, random forest model, self-transcendence
Received: 05 Aug 2025; Accepted: 06 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Ren, Sun, Zhang, Hua and Gu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Qin Wang, 18052448681@163.com
Guoqin Ren, rgq4124@163.com
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