Introduction:

Gratitude is widely known character strength that contributes to positive outcomes. The aim of this research was to confirm the relationship between gratitude and psychophysical, psychosocial, subjective, metaphysical, and global quality of life (QOL) among cancer patients. This relationship was supposed to be mediated by coping strategies and moderated by gender.

Material and methods:

The participants comprised 96 hospitalized patients during 5–7-week radiotherapy, 48 women and 48 men, with breast or prostate cancer diagnosis. The following were used/measured: dispositional gratitude questionnaire, general coping strategies and specific cancer stress coping strategies, and perceived QOL (questionnaire of sense of QOL). Structural equations and bootstrap technique were used to analyse moderated mediation.

Results:

Helplessness mediated the relationship between gratitude and global, psychophysical, psychosocial, and subjective QOL. Positive reinterpretation mediated the relationship between gratitude and global, psychosocial, subjective, and metaphysical QOL. Active coping mediated the relationship between gratitude and psychosocial and metaphysical QOL. The relationship between gratitude and subjective QOL was mediated by helplessness only among women.

Conclusions:

The results show that there is relationship between gratitude and perceived QOL among cancer patients, which is mediated by coping. Gender moderates this mediational relationship. The results show the opportunity to improve patients’ perceived QOL by interventions concentrated on gratitude enhancement and coping.