COPING WITH ADDITIONAL STRESSES - COMPARATIVE-STUDY OF HEALTHY AND CANCER-PATIENT NEW IMMIGRANTS

The adjustment and psychological distress of 166 cancer patients, who are new immigrants from the former Soviet Union, was assessed and comp ared to that of 288 healthy new immigrants from the former Soviet Unio n. The healthy new immigrants had many adjustment problems and their p sychological distress was fairly high. The cancer patients reported ex tremely severe psychological distress. In the healthy immigrants, age contributed to distress while family support had significant protectiv e effects especially in the male immigrants. In the patients, these di fferences were even more extreme with family support being protective in the male group but not in the female group. Intrusiveness (IES) see ms to be maladaptive adding to distress. The results clearly indicate that additional stresses, such as immigration, make cancer patients mo re vulnerable. The results also suggest possible interventions, especi ally those that will help to decrease intrusiveness.