Coping Style, Health Beliefs, and Breast Self-Examination

The purpose of this study was to determine the role of coping style in women's practice of breast self-examination (BSE). The framework was adapted from the Cognitive Transactional Model of Stress and Coping and the Health Belief Model. The convenience sample consisted of 269 women recruited from an employee list of a medical center and a membership list of a professional nurses' group. Survey booklets were distributed via interdepartmental or U.S. mail and contained measures of trait anxiety and defensiveness and questions related to health beliefs, BSE practice, and demographics. The sample was categorized by coping style (i.e., repressive, true high anxious, defensive high anxious, or true low anxious), and data were analyzed via MANOVAs, ANOVAs, and hierarchical regression. Results indicated that coping style predicted BSE practice (i.e., proficiency, frequency) and health beliefs of barriers, confidence, seriousness, and susceptibility. The findings provide nurses with information for developing interventions to foster BSE.