Effects of self-efficacy and social support on postsurgical recovery of heart patients

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Abstract
Coping with stressful life events can be facilitated by personal and social resources, such as perceived self-efficacy and social support. This applies also to the adaptation to surgical stress and to severe diseases. Two hundred and forty-eight patients were surveyed before and after heart surgery. Degree of worry, emotional states, reading activity and physical activity were chosen as characteristics of the recovery process. Whether presurgical personal and social resources would predict readjustment after heart surgery was examined. Hierarchical regression analyses identified an interaction between the two resources, underscoring the existence of the well-known support buffer effect. Covariance structure analysis revealed that perceived self-efficacy was a better predictor of recovery than social support.