ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Psycho-Oncology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1614974
Association between perceived social support and post-traumatic growth among female thyroid cancer survivors: The chain mediating role of psychological resilience and coping strategies
Provisionally accepted
- 1Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
- 2School of Nursing, Health Science Centre, Peking University, Beijing, China
- 3School of Nursing, Capital Medical University, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
- 4School of Nursing, LiaoNing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China
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Introduction: The incidence of thyroid cancer has exhibited a steady upward trajectory, with women being more prevalent than men. Meanwhile, female thyroid cancer survivors are more prone to encountering negative psychological issues. Post-traumatic growth (PTG), a key element of positive psychology, has not been extensively studied in female thyroid cancer survivors, with unclear development pathways. This study aimed to investigate the correlates of PTG in female thyroid cancer survivors, including perceived social support, psychological resilience, and coping strategies. Methods: 635 female thyroid cancer survivors were included in this cross-sectional study. Data were collected using an online questionnaire comprising demographic information and scales measuring perceived social support, psychological resilience, coping strategies, and PTG. The relationships among variables were assessed using Pearson correlation analysis. The potential mediating roles were explored using AMOS 26.0. The indirect effects were assessed through bias-corrected bootstrapping procedure, utilizing 5000 bootstrap samples. Results: Perceived social support was directly related to PTG (p<0.001) in female thyroid cancer survivors. It exerted indirect effects on PTG through the mediating roles of specific coping strategies, including problem-focused coping (effect size=0.197, p<0.001), emotion-focused coping (effect size=0.141, p<0.001), and avoidant coping (effect size=0.009, p<0.05). In addition, chain mediation pathways involving both psychological resilience and coping strategies were identified. Specifically, a significant chain mediation effect was found through psychological resilience and emotion-focused coping (effect size=0.008, p=0.002), as well as through psychological resilience and avoidant coping (effect size=-0.003, p=0.031). In contrast, psychological resilience alone did not serve a significant mediating role between perceived social support and PTG (p>0.05). Conclusion: Psychological resilience and emotion-focused/avoidant coping strategies play a chain mediating role in the relationship between perceived social support and PTG in female thyroid cancer survivors. These findings enhance the understanding of the predictive effects of perceived social support on PTG and suggest ways to enhance PTG among female thyroid cancer survivors.
Keywords: Post-traumatic growth, perceived social support, psychological resilience, coping strategies, female, thyroid cancer
Received: 20 Apr 2025; Accepted: 16 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Lv, Hu, Kou, Li, Li, Ren, Fu and Wang. 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: Na Wang, na_wang_3@163.com
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