POST TRAUMATIC GROWTH

I am a two-year breast cancer survivor and doctoral psychology student who is conducting research into the phenomenon of Post Traumatic Growth (PTG). PTG refers to the positive psychological change one might experience as a result of the struggle to find meaning in response to a significant life crisis. I am seeking other breast cancer survivors who are within two years of their last treatment (i.e. surgery and/or chemo, radiation) to complete a survey about their experiences. If you fit the criteria and would like to participate please click on the following link: BC Survey   Thanks so much in advance for your interest and contribution.

(This post has been approved by Breastcancer.org. Breastcancer.org does not however endorse, and specifically disclaims any responsibility or liability for any content). Posted by Breastcancer.org Moderators.

I truly understand your concern and I want to assure you and the rest of the community that before posting the link, I carefully reviewed the community rules and rules of conduct of the site. I did not see any language requiring or suggesting pre-approval by a moderator, or even a process to do so.

I would also like to assure you and the community that my survey is hosted by surveymonkey.com, a nationally recognized survey administrative site for which I have paid a fee to compile my questions, protect participants' anonymity, and to protect against viruses,spam, etc. Thanks for sharing your concerns. I hope this helps.

Dear Otter,

I read your post and wanted to address the concerns you raised. With respect to the second issue, once you click on my survey, you are immediately brought to my informed consent form which includes my full name, academic institution, contact information, the name and contact information of my dissertation mentor, as well as the name and contact information of the chair of the institutional review board which did grant approval of my research. Moreover, the informed consent provides a brief overview of the purpose of my research, as well as the content of the information I am seeking, so that women can decide whether or not they would like to participate before they proceed to the survey.  

Regarding the first concern you raised, I wanted to explain that I am posting on this site for two main reasons. One is that I need to go where breast cancer survivors are available. Second, although I am also recruiting women for my study by talking to local groups/institutions in person in the NY metropolitan area, I wanted to try to obtain a more diverse sample of women from different parts of the country as this is a national site. While I can appreciate some of your concerns regarding authenticity of responses, I  am willing to bet that the majority of women who utilize this site are legitimate, and will place my trust in those who place their trust in me.

As far as your third concern, I think it's important to note that to date the majority of research into coping with life threatening illnesses has focused almost exclusively on negative outcomes. More recently, there has been a growing number of studies that indicate many people also experience positive outcomes after facing a traumatic event.  As a breast cancer survivor myself, I know how distressing it is to receive a cancer diagnosis. PTG does not discount this aspect of the experience, proponents of this theory posit that focusing solely on the negative outcomes may paint a potentially misleading or incomplete picture of people's experiences. It also doesn't imply that people need to experience PTG in order to heal or that they have to feel "positive" all the time. I am interested in learning whether or not PTG is experienced by BC survivors, and if so, in what areas of their lives it manifests.

I  understand your initial skepticism and would welcome any further questions/concerns.

Thank you,

grateful survivor2008