Testing Models of Change in Life Goals After a Cancer Diagnosis

Abstract

This study analyzes goals of 159 cancer patients before the start of therapy and goals of 160 healthy controls. Follow-up data were collected at about 9 and 18 months after the first assessment. Patients reported fewer achievement-related goals and leisure goals than controls and had a shorter time perspective for their goals; these differences persisted over the study interval. Whereas the number of health-related goals was similar in both groups at the Time 1, patients showed an increase in this goal category thereafter. In addition, patients reported more health-related barriers to goal pursuit than their healthy peers at Time 1, but this difference declined over time. We conclude that cancer influences loss-based goal selection in the first days after being diagnosed and that the changed goal perspective is widely maintained for one and a half years.