The purpose of this study was to determine if family emotional system variables are associated with the development of breast cancer. The Weber-Breaux Family Well-Being Scale was developed to measure the variables. The scale has three subscales: Parental Overinvolvement, Family Generated Chronic Anxiety, and Emotional Cutoff which have reliability (internal consistency) scores of.79,.89, and.80, respectively. The scale has construct validity as demonstrated by a principal components factor analysis. / The instrument was administered to 45 breast cancer patients and 44 non-breast cancer women. A direct discriminant function analysis was performed. The criterion variables were breast cancer and non-breast cancer and the predictor variables were scores on each of the three subscales, occurrence of fibrocystic disease, age at birth of first child, occurrence of breast cancer in mother, sister, and daughter and age at start of menstrual period. The results revealed a non-significant discrimination between groups although using the regression equation, 61% of the cases were correctly classified. / A direct discriminant function analysis was again performed using the same variables, but eliminating non-breast cancer women who were known to have other psychosomatic illnesses leaving n=8. Although the results were not significant, 89% were correctly classified using the regression equation. / The canonical correlation increased from.2542614 in the first analysis to.5418860 in the second. These results suggest that a larger control group with no psychosomatic illnesses might produce significant results. The results of t-tests were also not significant. / The findings of this study do not support the application of Bowen's concept of a multigenerational family emotional system background process to the development of breast cancer. Implications for further research include further testing of the instrument, the use of a multitrait multimethod research design, the use of a research design which encompasses biological, psychological, and social aspects, and the use of a control group with no psychosomatic illnesses. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-06, Section: A, page: 1589. / Major Professor: Mary Hicks. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1988.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_76276 |
| Contributors | Weber-Breaux, Janice Gauthier., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 143 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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