Purpose: Adolescents and young adults (AYAs) diagnosed with cancer between ages 15-39 years are a unique and vulnerable population, encountering many typical developmental challenges while also dealing with the demands of illness and its aftermath. Overwhelming evidence demonstrates the importance of social well-being in survivorship quality of life. For AYAs, social connections may be of heightened importance as they assert independence from their parents and create their own personal lives. Few studies have characterized AYA survivors' social well-being and its determinants over time, particularly how psychological adjustment might promote improved social well-being.
Methods: We assessed 83 AYA survivors at two time points across 1 year to characterize their social well-being, identify common social connection concerns, describe how social well-being changes over time, examine how psychological adjustment relates to social well-being at a given time point, and determine whether psychological adjustment predicts changes in social well-being over time.
Results: Our sample rated their quality of life as lower than population mean scores, and despite relatively high levels of social support and satisfaction, more than half of participants also reported concerns in specific social well-being domains. On average, social well-being increased across the year. Psychological adjustment was strongly positively related to various aspects of social well-being, and it predicted improved social well-being over time.
Conclusion: These results suggest that improving psychological adjustment may be important for strengthening social support networks and improving AYAs' lives in survivorship.
Keywords: psychological adjustment; quality of life; social support; social well-being; stress.