A Study on Spouse Support, Self Esteem and Psychosocial Adjustment of Patients in Mastectomy

유방절제술 환자의 배우자 지지, 자아존중감 및 사회심리적 적응에 관한 연구

This study was designed to provide the basic data of effective nursing intervention for alleviation of psychosocial adjustment of patients in mastectomy after identifying the correlation between the spouse support, self esteem and psychosocial adjustment. The study subjects were 83 postmastectomy patients who visited the outpatient clinic at 3 university hospitals in Taegu city from September 10, 1997 to October 16 1997. Data was collected by researcher and face to-face interview was conducted. Nam's spouse support scale(1987), Rosenberg's self esteem instrument (1965), Derogatis' Psychosocial Adjustment to Illness Scale were used. The data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficient, t -test and ANOVA with the SAS program. The results of this study were as follows: 1. The mean score for the spouse support of the subjects was 3.73, self esteem was 3.69 and psychosocial adjustment was 3.61points. 2. According to the patient's hope of breast reconstruction(t=2.04, p=0.0445), there was significant difference of self esteem. According to the patient's family number( t = 2.31, p = 0.0237), there was significant difference of the psychosocial adjustment. 3. Perceived spouse support and self esteem had statistically significant positive correlations(r= 0.5120, p=0.0001). Perceived spouse support and psychosocial adjustment had statistically significant positive correlations(r=0.4187, p=0.0001). Perceived self esteem and psychosocial adjustment had statistically significant positive correlations(r = 0.6296, p=0.0001). Therefore, to increase the level of psychosocial adjustment of patients in mastectomy, it will be effective to supportive nursing intervention by improving spouse support and enhancing self esteem.