Comparative Models of the Impact of Social Support on Psychological Distress in Cancer Patients Page: 71

                                
found for the Effective Mobilization, Support Seeking/Triage, Additive and
Reciprocity models does not indicate that these models are not applicable to this
population. Instead, it indicates the need for further research including better
measures of social embeddedness and enacted social support.
Measurement Models
Initial modeling attempts were made including social embeddedness (or
structural social support) measures. However, a stable solution was not found,
which might be due to increased measurement error for structural social support.
Since male patients with a spouse/partner did not answer the structural social
support measures, the answers of their wives/partners were taken as an
estimation of the male participant's structural social support, probably increasing
measurement error. Furthermore, the present study was limited by its archival
nature and the inability of choosing reliable and well-validated social support
measures.
Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were both performed using
the same data, in the present sample. A cross-validation of the measurement
models will be possible in a longitudinal sample (by replicating the measurement
models using data from the HRS Waves 2 and 3).
Although a Cancer factor (composed by the following variables: Cancer
Severity Rate, Time Since Diagnosis, and Saw Doctor During Last Year) was
initially found, it was dropped from the structural analyses because of its low
intercorrelation with the other Illness Stress factor or with Psychological Distress

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