Abstract
Many people initially assumed that the ability to find benefits from an illness would contribute to better adjustment to the illness, and much research has supported that view. In persons with various cancers, for example, links have emerged between concurrent benefit finding and lower distress, higher self-esteem, less anxiety greater well-being, more positive mood, and higher current life satisfaction and estimates of future life satisfaction. Yet a number of studies of women treated for breast cancer have obtained findings that differ from these. In some cases, no relation emerged between benefit finding and distress or well-being. In at least one case, benefit finding early in the cancer experience related to higher distress and reports of poorer quality of life later on. These puzzling inconsistencies generated much comment among researchers interested in benefit finding. What might account for the inconsistency? (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved)