Gendered perspectives on coping with cancer recurrence: Insights from women in China

Abstract

Cancer recurrence imposes significant physical, psychological, social, and spiritual burdens, with women facing distinctly gendered challenges shaped by family obligations and societal expectations. Guided by the approach—the avoidance model of coping—this qualitative study explored coping strategies among women living with recurrent cancer in Henan Province, China. Fifteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants recruited from a tertiary hospital and analysed using thematic analysis. Three levels of coping were identified: individual, family, and societal. At the individual level, women drew on meaning-making, behavioural adaptation, and spiritual or role-based resilience. At the family level, coping was relational and often collective: emotional support, financial pooling, caregiving labour, and shared decision-making. At the societal level, women relied on informal networks and online resources, while formal community services remained limited. These coping strategies were dynamic and multidimensional, shaped by personal agency, relational resources, and structural constraints, including small family size, labour migration, illness-related stigma, gendered caregiving norms, and inadequate local healthcare infrastructure. Findings highlight the complexity of survivorship among Chinese women with recurrent cancer and underscore the need for multilevel, gender-responsive psychosocial interventions. The study carries significant implications for medical social workers supporting the psychological, social, and material dimensions of women’s cancer experiences.