Background. Purpose in life is important to health and well-being; purpose disruption often goes unidentified after breast cancer. Purpose. To evaluate the efficacy of a purpose renewal intervention and utility of a screening question for identifying people with purpose-related distress. Method. In this prospective pretest-posttest study, participants with breast cancer received an 8-session purpose renewal group intervention (n = 35). Participants completed standardized measures of meaning and purpose at pretest, posttest, and two-month follow-up and a forced-choice Purpose Status Question (PSQ) at pretest. Findings. Participants made statistically significant pretest-to-posttest and pretest-to-follow-up improvements. The PSQ demonstrated construct validity: 40% of participants lacked purpose direction at pretest and this subgroup made significantly greater improvements than participants who reported purpose direction at pretest. Implications. The PSQ warrants further study as a screener to identify people with purpose-related distress. Many breast cancer survivors may benefit from a purpose in life intervention; a subgroup may benefit more.

背景。人生目标对健康和幸福很重要；目的中断通常在乳腺癌后变得不明。目的。评估目的更新干预的有效性和筛选问题在识别与目的相关的痛苦的人方面的效用。方法。在这项前瞻性的前测后测研究中，患有乳腺癌的参与者接受了为期 8 次的目的更新小组干预（n = 35）。参与者在前测、后测和两个月的随访中完成了意义和目的的标准化测量，并在前测时完成了强制选择目的状态问题 (PSQ)。发现。参与者进行了统计显着的前测到后测和前测到后续改进。PSQ 证明了结构效度：40% 的参与者在预测试时缺乏目的方向，并且该亚组比在预测试时报告目的方向的参与者取得了显着更大的改进。影响。PSQ 值得进一步研究，作为识别与目的相关的痛苦的人的筛选器。许多乳腺癌幸存者可能会受益于生活干预的目的；一个子群体可能会受益更多。