Comparison of Hope and Prosocial Behavior Intentions in Different Levels of Positive Consequences of Cancer Illness

Physical illnesses such as cancer, in addition to negative consequences, can also have positive outcomes that are known as positive consequence of illness. The aim of this study was to compare hope and prosocial behavior intentions in different levels of positive consequences of cancer illness.

In this causal-comparative study, the population of the study consisted of cancer patients in hospitals in Rasht city (District 1) in 2019, of which 200 patients were selected by convenience sampling. For collecting data, Silver Lining Questionnaire (Sodergren & Hyland, 2000), Hope Scale (Snyder et al., 1991), and Prosocial Behavioral Intention Scale (Baumsteiger & Siegel, 2019) were used. Finally, the data were analyzed by multiple analysis of variance method.

The group of cancer patients with high level of positive consequences of illness got higher scores in hope and prosocial behavior intentions in comparison to group of cancer patients with low level of positive consequences of illness.

According to the findings, the group of cancer patients with high level of positive consequences of illness have higher hope and intentions for prosocial behaviors. Hence, providing interventions to increase the positive consequences of cancer can lead to increased hope and prosocial behavior intentions.