Development and Validation of a Brief Cancer Acceptance Scale in Patients with Sarcoma

Abstract

Objective: To develop and examine the psychometric properties of a brief scale for assessing cancer acceptance in a sample of patients with sarcoma. Method: One hundred seven adult patients diagnosed with sarcoma completed the cancer acceptance scale along with measures of anxiety, depression, emotional distress, and health-related quality of life. Internal structure was tested with confirmatory factor analysis; internal consistency was estimated with Cronbach’s alpha and McDonald’s omega; convergent validity was examined via Spearman correlations with psychological adjustment variables. Results: The final version comprised 9 items and showed a unidimensional structure with excellent model fit (χ2(23) = 18.16; CFI = 0.992; TLI = 0.987; RMSEA = 0.036). Internal consistency was satisfactory (α = 0.85; ω = 0.83). Cancer acceptance correlated negatively with anxiety (ρ = -0.59) and depression (ρ = -0.61) and positively with global quality of life (ρ = 0.43). Conclusions: The brief Cancer Acceptance Scale demonstrates adequate reliability and convergent validity and may be a useful tool for clinical assessment and research in oncology populations.