Abstract
The present study analyzed relationships between everyday competence, goal of therapy, and health-related locus of control with emotional wellbeing of 337 newly diagnosed cancer patients. In line with predictions, higher scores in activities of daily living (ADL) and higher internal locus of control were associated with better emotional well-being, whereas fatalism was related to lower levels of emotional well-being. However, no associations between socially external locus of control and goal of therapy with well-being emerged. In addition, we found interaction effects of ADL and locus of control on emotional well-being: Participants with no ADL-impairments and low impairments, but not those with high impairments, showed a positive relationship between internal health-related locus of control beliefs and emotional well-being. However, social-external health-related locus of control was related to better emotional well-being only in participants with strong impairments of daily activities. We conclude that associations between health-related locus of control and emotional wellbeing vary with patients’ level of everyday competence.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.