Expressions of generativity and posttraumatic growth in adult cancer survivors

Much of the psycho-oncology research that has been conducted to date has focused on understanding the negative psychological and psychosocial sequelae of cancer. However, a growing body of evidence suggests that many cancer survivors report psychological growth following a diagnosis of cancer. Further, there are few studies that examine the relationship among age, cancer, and posttraumatic growth. This study examines relationships among posttraumatic growth, generativity, age, and gender. Questionnaires were mailed to 400 randomly-selected cancer survivors from a metropolitan hospital tumor registry, with a yield of 21%. Three age cohorts were examined (26-41 years, 42-54 years, and 55-plus years). As anticipated, MANOVA showed no significant age differences in expression of generative concern among the three cohorts, but there was evidence that younger adults engage in a greater number of generative behaviors than older adults. Further, females reported more positive growth on four out of the five domains of the measure of posttraumatic growth compared to males, and the oldest cohort experienced lower levels of positive growth compared with the other two groups. Generative concern was positively correlated with the total posttraumatic growth score. Implications for theoretical and applied research on generativity and posttraumatic growth in adult cancer survivors are discussed.