Dataset on posttraumatic growth in women survived breast cancer

Posttraumatic growth is a set of positive psychological changes that happened to a person after he/she has been exposed to psychological trauma. Cancer diagnosis and treatment could cause severe psychological trauma. Women diagnosed with breast cancer have to deal with not only physical outcomes but also with psychosocial ones. After a complete remission is confirmed, some of them develop new meaning and purpose in life, change a job, improve relationships, etc. In this study, we assessed the characteristics of posttraumatic growth in 30 women (mean age – 55 years) with breast cancer in complete remission. We used the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory, the Purpose-In-Life Test, and the Impact of Event Scale-Revised. In this article, the raw data, summed subscale scores, descriptive statistics, and results of the correlational analysis are presented. The dataset may be used for making cross-cultural comparisons and for a further in-depth examination of positive experience in cancer survivors.


Specifications
Psychology Specific subject area Clinical and Health Psychology, Psychotraumatology Type of data Tables How data were acquired Self-report based scales and inventories were administered to the participants. Data format Raw Summed subscale scores Analyzed Parameters for data collection Women diagnosed with breast cancer took part in this research project six months after complete remission is confirmed. All the participants signed the Informed Consent Form.

Description of data collection
The researcher examined the participants individually. Before administering the standardized tests, the researcher asked women a few questions about their experience upon the diagnosis. After the conversation, women filled out the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory, the Purpose-In-Life Test, and the Impact of Event Scale-Revised. Data were collected hardcopy. Data

Value of the Data
• Being diagnosed with any type of cancer and undergoing cancer treatment are very stressful events. However, surviving cancer may have some positive psychological outcomes called "posttraumatic growth" [1][2][3] . Body image disturbances, losing the sense of femininity, anxiety, depression, and poor quality of life are the most studied psychological aspects of having breast cancer in women [4][5][6] . • Focusing on positive psychological outcomes of fighting cancer may benefit both doctors and patients to establish more trustful relationships. Further use of the data to reveal psychological mechanisms of successful coping may help to promote optimism and hope in women who are newly diagnosed with breast cancer. • The data are of considerable practical importance since it may be used for making some cross-cultural comparisons. Despite the relatively small sample size, the data generally reflect the main characteristics of female citizens of Central Russia. • Cancer researchers may consider the dataset as an initial pack for a further in-depth examination of what people experience upon the cancer diagnosis and treatment. They also may use the data for making comparisons with samples consisted of patients with other types of cancer. • Clinical psychologists and specialists in cancer rehabilitation may find this dataset useful for developing evidence-based programs of psychosocial support for those who are finishing cancer treatment. Table 1 contains social, demographic, and medical data about the participants. For each participant, her code, age at the time of diagnosis, age at the time of examination, educational level, employment status, and marital status are shown. The column "Details of diagnosis" includes the precise localization of a tumor (left/right breast) as well as the stage of malignancy in accordance with the TNM classification. The data for each participant are timestamped.   0  0  0  2  22  15  8  12  9  13  23  13  8  7  6  12  24  15  10  13  9  14  25  11  0  7  1  6  26  14  3  4  0  5  27  24  14  15  9  12  28  25  19  18  7  14  29  29  19  19  8  15  30  20  14  12  2  12   Table 2 contains the summed subscale scores collected by administering the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (a copy of the questionnaire in English is provided as a supplementary file). For each participant, her code and individual results are represented. The raw data (the actual item scores) were uploaded to Mendeley Data [7] . Table 3 includes the summed scores collected by administering both the Purpose-In-Life Test and the Impact of Event Scale (copies of these questionnaires in English are provided as supplementary files). For each participant, her code and obtained results are provided. The raw data (the actual item scores) were uploaded to Mendeley Data [ 8 , 9 ]. Table 4 includes the analyzed data obtained after calculating both measures of central tendency (Mean) and measures of variability (Dispersion, Standard Deviation). Many variables in this dataset are either binomial or count, which means they are not distributed normally in the population. Moreover, recent research suggests that posttraumatic growth is typically negatively skewed [10] . Thus, if data are utilized in multivariate analysis, users should pay close attention to the assumptions, such as the normal distribution of the data. Table 5 contains the analyzed data obtained by calculating Pearson correlations. There are significant negative correlations between the measure of purpose in life and intrusion (-0.458, p < 0.05), avoidance (-0.502, p < 0.01), and hyperarousal (-0.604, p < 0.01). One possible limitation here is that these associations may be overestimated due to the small size of the sample. There are no significant correlations between the parameters of posttraumatic growth and the subscales of the Impact of Event Scale-Revised.  1  72  8  22  17  2  99  17  19  11  3  93  19  16  21  4  103  19  24  13  5  80  17  18  17  6  81  11  16  11  7  109  18  20  23  8  102  15  18  15  9  86  18  17  17  10  87  14  22  13  11  110  5  1  3  12  70  32  32  23  13  112  9  12  4  14  126  13  9  4  15  98  16  16  11  16  113  9  9  0  17  117  3  14  1  18  123  15  26  1  19  140  3  0  1  20  122  4  3  2  21  114  6  21  4  22  107  19  23  14  23  103  27  17  17  24  106  25  20  23  25  96  10  6  6  26  76  4  5  0  27  80  32  21  24  28  115  8  7  1  29  129  6  1  3  30  112  10  9  5   Table 4 Descriptive statistics of the data.

Experimental Design, Materials, and Methods
Participants. The sample consisted of 30 Caucasian women (aged from 39 to 73, with a mean age of 55 years) with breast cancer who achieved a complete remission. They did not have any other types of cancer as comorbid. All women underwent a mastectomy and from 10 to 40 courses of chemotherapy. They did not take any psychotropic medications (not during cancer treatment, nor after the treatment is completed). They are comparable in socio-demographic characteristics such as marital and family status, educational level, and employment status. Their socioeconomic status may be characterized as middle-income. The social, demographic, and medical data are provided in detail in Table 1 .
Experimental Design. The sample is described as a single cohort based on the time of remission onset. All the participants were approached one by one when they came for a routine check to the outpatient department of the Ryazan Region Clinical Oncology Center. Each participant signed the Informed Consent Form. Before administering the standardized tests, all women answered a few open-ended questions about their experience upon the diagnosis. The purpose of these questions was to get participants involved in the research project and to develop the motivation to participate further. After a brief conversation, the participants filled out three standardized measures. Data were collected hardcopy. (2) -a small degree; (3) -a moderate degree; (4) -a great degree; (5) -a very great degree of changes.
3. Purpose-In-Life Test. This test was developed by J.C. Crumbaugh and L.T. Maholick (1976) [12] . The Russian adaptation was made by D. A. Leontiev (1988). It consists of 20 statements that should be rated using a 7-point Likert scale.
Microsoft Excel was used to calculate descriptive statistics and Pearson correlations.

Ethics Statement
The School of Clinical Psychology at the Ryazan State Medical University (Ryazan, Russia) provided us with the ethical approval for this research project. All the participants gave informed consent for participating in the research project.

Declaration of Competing Interest
The author declare that she has no known competing financial interests or personal relationships which have, or could be perceived to have, influenced the work reported in this article.