{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,31]],"date-time":"2026-08-31T10:17:11Z","timestamp":1788171431632,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":41,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"17","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,28]],"date-time":"2026-08-28T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1787875200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["J. Clin. Med.","JCM"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Lung cancer carries a substantial psychosocial burden, frequently involving elevated psychological distress, disease-related stigma, and difficulties in adaptation to illness. Coping styles and self-efficacy are both recognized as relevant personal resources in chronic illness, but their combined statistical association with perceived stress, and specifically whether self-efficacy accounts for part of the association between coping and stress, has not been examined in lung cancer patients. Objective: This study examined the statistical associations between coping styles (task-, emotion-, and avoidance-oriented), cancer-related self-efficacy, and perceived stress, testing cancer-related self-efficacy as a mediator of each coping style\u2019s association with perceived stress, and additionally compared these variables by gender. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among ninety-seven patients diagnosed with lung cancer. Standardized measures included the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations, a cancer-specific adaptation of the Generalized Self-Efficacy Scale, and the Perceived Stress Scale. A series of three simple mediation analyses was performed to evaluate the proposed statistical model. Results: Task-oriented coping was positively, and emotion-oriented coping negatively, associated with cancer-related self-efficacy; avoidance-oriented coping showed no significant association with self-efficacy. Task- and emotion-oriented coping were significantly associated with perceived stress in the expected directions, while avoidance-oriented coping was not. Cancer-related self-efficacy significantly, and partially, mediated the association between task-oriented coping and perceived stress; no significant indirect effect was found for emotion- or avoidance-oriented coping. Women reported significantly higher perceived stress and greater use of emotion-oriented coping than men, with no significant gender differences in self-efficacy or the other coping styles. Conclusions: In this cross-sectional sample, cancer-related self-efficacy was statistically associated with lower perceived stress specifically through its association with task-oriented coping, whereas the association between emotion-oriented coping and stress appeared largely independent of self-efficacy. These findings suggest that coping styles are associated with perceived stress through at least partly distinct mechanisms and support attention to both active coping and self-efficacy beliefs in psychosocial care for lung cancer patients, while findings regarding gender differences warrant further, formally tested investigation.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/jcm15176674","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,31]],"date-time":"2026-08-31T09:21:19Z","timestamp":1788168079000},"page":"6674","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Associations Between Cancer-Related Self-Efficacy, Coping Styles, and Perceived Stress in Patients with Lung Cancer: A Cross-Sectional Mediation Analysis"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9322-4019","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Agata","family":"Por\u0119ba-Chabros","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Psychology, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Al. Rac\u0142awickie 14, 20-950 Lublin, Poland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"formal-analysis","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"validation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"resources","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2521-2950","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Magdalena","family":"Kola\u0144ska-Stronka","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Psychology, SWPS University, Chodakowska 19\/31, 03-815 Warsaw, Poland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"formal-analysis","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"visualization","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4274-1646","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Marzanna","family":"Farnicka","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Social Prevention and Resocialization, University of Warsaw, ul. Krakowskie Przedmie\u015bcie Street 26\/28, 00-927 Warsaw, Poland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"formal-analysis","vocabulary":"credit"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,28]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"Lung Cancer Europe (2026, July 12). 5th LuCE Report on Lung Cancer: Psychological and Social Impact of Lung Cancer. 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