Date of Award

2011

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Abstract

In this study, hope, spirituality, stage of cancer, age, and gender were explored as predictors of the quality of life perceived by 100 cancer patients. The instruments used were the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy—Spirituality Well-Being, the Herth Hope Index, and the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy. The patients were being treated at two oncology medical centers in the mid-western region of the United States. The main findings indicated a predictive relationship between spirituality, hope, stage of cancer, age, gender, and quality of life. A simultaneous multiple regression analysis, using quality of life as a dependent variable and spirituality, hope, stage of cancer, age, and gender as independent variables, indicated that patients with a high level of hope and spirituality and an earlier cancer stage reported having a greater quality of life. Age and gender had no significant predictive relationship with patient quality of life. Further findings indicated that spirituality and hope were positively correlated. Hope and stage of cancer, as well as spirituality and stage of cancer were found not to be significantly related, suggesting that neither hope nor spirituality significantly change as a result of the stage of cancer. The results of this study have implications concerning the relevance of hope and spirituality in the treatment of cancer patients and the impact of hope and spirituality on cancer patients' perceived quality of life.

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