Anticipating posttraumatic growth from cancer: patients' and collaterals' experiences.

Posttraumatic growth has been demonstrated to occur following the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Still unknown is whether patients expect such growth, how growth is perceived at early points in time that follow the cancer experience, and whether patient reports of growth are corroborated by others. Participants were 87 patients and 55 collaterals who reported their anticipation of growth pretreatment and their perceived growth at a 9-month follow-up. Patients' expectations for their own growth were significantly higher than collaterals' expectations for theirs. When anticipated growth was compared to later reported growth, patients overanticipated growth across all domains and collaterals underanticipated growth.