Cognitive emotion regulation in pregnant cancer patients and their partners and the relationship with anxiety and concerns

Pregnant women diagnosed with cancer and their partners are confronted with high levels of distress. Little is known about which people encounter major distress and may benefit from psychosocial support. We aimed to identify people at risk for heightened cancer in pregnancy related concerns using clusters of cognitive emotion regulation strategies.

Methode

Sixty-one pregnant cancer patients and their partners from Belgium and The Netherlands filled out the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ) and the newly constructed 5-factor Cancer In Pregnancy Anxiety Scale (CIPAS) following their cancer diagnosis. K-means cluster analysis was performed on the nine CERQ-scales. Scores on the CIPAS were compared between the different CERQ-clusters.

Resultaten

Three clusters of CERQ-scales were retrieved: positive coping, internalizing coping and blaming. Patients and partners preferably using internalizing emotion regulation strategies had significantly higher scores on concerns about the outcome for the child, the cancer disease and treatment, and the pregnancy and delivery. No differences were found for satisfaction with the information and care of the medical team and tendency to maintain the pregnancy. Patients and partners did not differ on anxiety scores or on satisfaction with the medical team, but patients were more inclined to maintain the pregnancy than their partners.

Conclusie

Pregnant cancer patients and their partners both experience cancer in pregnancy related concerns. However, people mainly using internalizing coping strategies deal with the highest levels of concerns and may benefit from additional psychosocial support.

Auteurs

Tineke Vandenbroucke¹, MSc, Sileny N. Han¹, MD, PhD, Kristel Van Calsteren², MD, PhD, Tom F. Wilderjans³, PhD, Bea R. H. Van den Bergh⁴, PhD, Laurence Claes⁵*, PhD, Frédéric Amant⁶*, MD, PhD

*equally contributed

1 KU Leuven – University of Leuven, Department of Oncology; University Hospitals Leuven, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Gynecological Oncology, Leuven, Belgium. Address: Herestraat 49, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium. Tel.: +32 16 34 42 52. Fax: +32 16 34 46 29. E-mail: tineke.vandenbroucke [at] uzleuven.be, sileny.han [at] uzleuven.be.  

2 KU Leuven – University of Leuven, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology; University Hospitals Leuven, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Leuven, Belgium. Tel.: +32 16 34 42 00. Fax: +32 16 34 42 05. E-mail: kristel.vancalsteren [at] uzleuven.be.

3 Leiden University, Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Institute of Psychology, Methodology and Statistics Research Unit, Leiden, The Netherlands; KU Leuven – University of Leuven, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Leuven, Belgium. Tel: +31 71 527 27 27. E-mail: t.f.wilderjans [at] fsw.leidenuniv.nl.

4 Tilburg University, Tilburg School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, 5000 LE Tilburg, The Netherlands. Tel: +31 13 466 27 29. E-mail: bea.vdnbergh [at] tilburguniversity.edu.

5 KU Leuven – University of Leuven, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Leuven, Belgium. Tel.: +32 16 32 61 33. Fax: +32 16 32 59 16. E-mail: laurence.claes [at] ppw.kuleuven.be.

6 KU Leuven – University of Leuven, Department of Oncology, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium; Antoni van Leeuwenhoek hospital – Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Tel.: +32 16 34 42 52. Fax: +32 16 34 46 29. E-mail: frederic.amant [at] uzleuven.be.