Contributing Allocation of Meaning of Life and Perceived Social Support in Coping with the Pain

the aim of this study was to examine the role of meaning of life and perceived social support in pain intensity. Based on a correlational study, 158 patients with cancer were selected by convenience sampling method from radiation therapy wards of two hospitals in Tehran. The participants completed the pain intensity subscale of the Multidimensional Pain Inventory (MPI), the Medical Outcomes Study-Social Support Survey (MOS-SSS; Sherborne & Stewart, 1991), and the Meaning of Life Questionnaire (Steger, Frazier, Oishi & Kaler, 2006).The results of multivariate regression analysis indicated that the meaning of life and social support correlated with the reported pain intensity.The social support and the meaning of life accounted for 83% of the variation in perception of pain intensity. The findings suggested the need to pay more attention to perceived social support in treatment of cancer patients.