Social constraints, intrusive thoughts, and mental health after prostate cancer

We examined how the social environment influences men's ability to cognitively process and recover psychologically from the trauma associated with prostate cancer. We hypothesized that men who judge others to be unreceptive to their attempts to talk about their cancer-related concerns would have poorer mental health than men with more receptive social networks. In a survey with 178 prostate cancer survivors, we measured intrusive thoughts about cancer, social constraints in talking about cancer, avoidance in thinking and talking about cancer, and mental health. There were significant interactive effects of Family/Friend Social Constraints × Intrusive Thoughts and Wife Social Constraints × Intrusive Thoughts on mental health. Plots of the interactions showed a stronger negative relation between intrusive thoughts and mental health among men who felt socially constrained in talking about their cancer than among men who felt unconstrained. In addition, level of constraints from family and friends was positively associated with level of avoidance in thinking and talking about cancer which, in turn, was associated with poorer mental health. These results suggest that supportive social networks may promote psychological adjustment by facilitating cognitive processing of the cancer experience.