AccScience Publishing / EJMO / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/EJMO025360377
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

Defense mechanisms, big five traits, and resilience in cancer: An exploratory, hypothesis-generating pilot study

Valentina Romeo1† ,  Vanessa Baggetta1† ,  Vincenzo Maraia Romeo1,2,3†*
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1 School of Psychoanalytic and Group-Analytic Psychotherapy, Reggio Calabria, Italy
2 Department of Culture and Society, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy
3 Women’s Health ODV – Reggio Calabria Section, Reggio Calabria, Italy
†These authors contributed equally to this work.
EJMO, 025360377 https://doi.org/10.36922/EJMO025360377
Received: 3 September 2025 | Revised: 13 October 2025 | Accepted: 16 October 2025 | Published online: 9 December 2025
© 2025 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution -Noncommercial 4.0 International License (CC-by the license) ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ )
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Abstract

Introduction: Psychological adaptation to cancer is thought to reflect the joint influence of dispositional traits and defensive functioning on resilience and trauma-related symptoms.

Objective: This pilot study explores associations among Big Five traits, defense mechanisms, psychological resilience, and post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) in adult oncology patients.

Methods: Sixteen consecutively recruited patients with histologically confirmed cancer completed validated self-report measures: 10-item big five inventory (personality), defense mechanisms rating scales–self-report (30-item, assessing overall defensive functioning and defense levels/mechanisms), 14-item resilience scale (resilience), and impact of event scale–revised (PTSS). Primary analyses estimated Spearman’s ρ with bias-corrected and accelerated 95% confidence intervals; family-wise error was controlled using Holm adjustment (two-tailed α = 0.05).

Results: After controlling for multiple comparisons, no associations remained statistically significant, and confidence intervals were wide.

Conclusion: Findings are hypothesis-generating and consistent with a psychodynamically informed, multidimensional model in which defensive style and personality dispositions shape resilience and PTSS. Definitive inferences require larger, prospectively characterized cohorts, psychometrically stronger trait measures, and multivariate modeling (e.g., structural equation modeling), with pre-registered analytic plans and longitudinal follow-up to test mechanism-focused interventions that target defense restructuring and resilience enhancement.

Graphical abstract
Keywords
Cancer
Defense mechanisms
Personality
Resilience
Post-traumatic disorders
Funding
None.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
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Eurasian Journal of Medicine and Oncology, Electronic ISSN: 2587-196X Print ISSN: 2587-2400, Published by AccScience Publishing
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