VOLUME 7 ISSUE 1 SPRING 2021

S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 7 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 2 1 5 5 Mária DěDoVá 1 Introduction Cancer is a common disease throughout the world, and, since a treatment is required for it, special attention and social support are also necessary. Cancer patients show typical behavior that makes it possible to identify how they adapt to cancer (Czerw, Marek and Deptala 2015, 415). After the treatment, there are several late consequences in patients, including the increased occurrence of a mild cognitive impairment (Mikulajová, Boleková and Surová 2017, 446) as well as cognitive distortions in everyday life (Boleková and Chlebcová 2020, 635). Experiencing a traumatic event, such as cancer, can also lead to positive changes, which were describes as posttraumatic growth by Tedeschi and Calhoun (1996). The posttraumatic growth is a positive experience, a change occurring as a result of a fight with particularly difficult life crises. it can be manifested in various ways, including increased appreciation of life as such, more meaningful interpersonal relationships, feeling of personal strength, changed priorities and richer existential and spiritual life. It has also been proposed that the posttraumatic growth has impact on life wisdom and development of life narrative, which presents an ongoing process, not a static result (Tanriverd, Savas and Can 2012, 4311). Cancer patients show various levels of posttraumatic growth, depending on social-demographic factors. Younger cancer patients dispose of higher levels of posttraumatic growth (Barskova and Oesterreich 2009; Danhauer et al. 2013); females show higher levels of posttraumatic development than males (Cormio et al. 2017; Zoellner and Maercker 2006). Patients who have been ill for shorter period show the strongest fighting spirit (Czerw, Marek and Deptala 2015, 414). Numerous factors, which contribute to posttraumatic growth, have been studied in psychological literature. Dimensions of social support represent one of the factors influencing the posttraumatic growth. It has been shown that the perception of social support correlated positively with the fighting spirit and negatively with feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, and fatalism (Yagmur and Duman 2016, 208). Talking to people, provision of financial aid and information on the disease can facilitate cognitive processing and adaptation to the disease, which can, in turn, result in increased posttraumatic growth (Rahimi, Heidarzadeh and Shoaee 2016, 23). Important role is played by emotional support in the period following the diagnosis of cancer and in the context of and experience with positive consequences of the disease in form of posttraumatic growth, 8 years after the diagnosis (Schroevers 2010, 46). Cancer survivors are significantly positively About the authors Mgr. Mária Dědová, PhD., is an Assistant Professor of psychology with special research interests in bullying and aggression at schools as well as logotheory and logotherapy of Victor Emil Frankl. Her email contact is maria.dedova@gmail.com. Mgr. Gabriel Baník, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of psychology at the Institute of Psychology of University of Prešov and researcher specialized in mental health area with particular interest in research of trauma, stress, depression, and anxiety. His email contact is gabriel.banik@gmail.com. influenced by optimism (Hodges and Winstanley 2012, 2049), feelings of hope (Abdullah et al. 2019), affectivity and level of emotional distress that belong among important factors related to posttraumatic growth (Lelorain et al. 2010). Spirituality has a status of multidimensional theoretical construct referring to a non-specific area of human activity. The essence of spirituality is transcendence of actually experienced ego (Heszen and Gruszczyńska 2004, 15), with spirituality being able to increase the level of posttraumatic growth (Calhoun et al. 2000).

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