Abstract

BASTIANELLO, Micheline Roat  and  HUTZ, Claudio Simon. Optimism and social support in women with breast cancer: a systematic review. Psicol. teor. prat. [online]. 2016, vol.18, n.2, pp. 19-33. ISSN 1516-3687.  http://dx.doi.org/10.15348/1980-6906/PSICOLOGIA.V18N2P19-33.

The present study aimed to conduct a systematic review of the scientific literature on the relation between optimism and social support in women with breast cancer. Electronic searches were performed using the descriptors optimism, social support, and breast cancer in English and Portuguese with the Boolean operator "and". The following data bases were used: PsycINFO, Scopus, Sage Publications, SciELO, Medline/PubMed Resources Guide. The study included papers published between the years 1994-2014. The articles were analyzed using five dimensions: objectives instruments sample analysis of the data and main results. The results showed that the scientific literature on the subject studied is still scarce and shows a slow growth. Regarding data collection instruments, the most widely used scale to measure optimism was the Revised Life Orientation Test (LOT-R), while to measure social support several different scales were used. The results suggest that women with greater optimism and social support tend to engage in healthier behaviors, contributing to a better quality of life.

Keywords : optimism; social support; breast cancer; positive psychology; literature review.

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