Merluzzi's research is in an area of health psychology referred to as psychooncology. Psychooncology is the scientific study of the interface of the medical and psychological aspects of cancer. Within psychooncology, he studies, among other things, coping and social support processes in people with cancer and cancer survivors from the perspective of social learning theory and, in particular, self-regulation and self-efficacy theories.
"What are you fighting for" video on Prof. Merluzzi's research
Below is a link to a very short video highlighting Prof. Merluzzi's work:
Video - American Cancer Society
Four Current Areas of Research
1. Assessment of Self-efficacy for Coping with Cancer
Development and refinement of the Cancer Behavior Inventory
The CBI (CBI-B and CBIV3.0), a widely-used measure of self-efficacy for coping with cancer, has been translated into many languages including the published Italian version of the Brief CBI (Serpentini, Del Bianco, Chirico, Merluzzi, et al., 2019) and the Korean version of CBIV3.0 (Lee, Merluzzi, Choi, & Lee, 2021).
PLEASE NOTE...The latest long (V3.0) and short (Brief Form) versions of the CBI are available on the Measures page of this website and through the links below.
Cancer Behavior Inventory (V3.0)
Cancer Behavior Inventory (Brief Form)
Recent Projects:
- Network Analysis Projects:
- Collaborative projects with colleagures from La Sapienza, Rome (Chirico, Palombi, Alivermini, Lucidi, & Merluzzi, 2024) focus on new methodology, network analysis, to represent the configuration and relationships among symptoms that can better inform tailored interventions for distress. State-of-the-art network analysis was used to derive a symptom-level view of distress (depression and anxiety) and resource factors (coping efficacy, received social support, seeking social support, and perceptions of caring health professionals), which reinforced the importance of coping efficacy and the utility of seeking and maintaining social support in the context of cancer. These results directly relate to interventions for anxiety and depression.
- A follow up network analysis project is a symptom-level analysis of received emotional support as a moderator of depression, anxiety, and physical symptoms, with a focus on differences between networks of breast cancer patients with high, moderate, and low emotional support (Palombi, Merluzzi et al., under review). This project identifies critical differences in the high versus low emotional support networks, with the former showing significantly more confluence of distress (depression and anxiety) and physical symptoms than the latter. These results account for the confluence of distress and physical symptoms and exceptions to that pattern in those with high levels of emotional support.
For versions of the CBI scales in languages other than English, please email me at tmerluzz@nd.edu. Most translated versions are not vetted by my lab, therefore, I cannot vouch for quality of the translated measures, except for the Italian version of the Brief 12-item CBI (CBI-Brief Form-Italian); Serpentini et al, 2019) and the Korean version of the 27-item CBI V3.0 (CBI3.0-Korean; Lee et al, 2021)
2. Transition Model of Cancer Survivorship, Theory-Based Palliative Care Model, Coping with Stressors, Social Support, Cancer and COVID-19
2.a. A Stage-based model of the transition from cancer diagnosis to cancer survivorship (Philip, Merluzzi, Zhang et al., 2013; Merluzzi et al, 2016; Philip & Merluzzi, 2016). Recent projects include a natural language analyses of stages of survivorship (Misiti, Kosidowski, Prendergast, Merluzzi, 2019; Kosidowski, Lamoretti, Wright, Salamanca-Balen & Merluzzi, 2021; Merluzzi, Salamanca Balen, Kurapatti, Misiti, & Kosidowski, 2021).
2.b. Stage-based model of palliative care. Along those same lines, a recent project involved proposing a model of palliative care that integrates agency, hope and uncertainty into stages of palliative care from early palliative care to hospice and terminal care (Merluzzi, Salamanca-Balen et al, 2024).
2.c. Coping models of cancer and cancer survivorship. These studies focus on coping with issues outside of the diagnosis and treatment of cancer that affect the lives of persons with cancer; for example, life stress (Merluzzi, Chirico, et al., 2019), comorbities (Merluzzi, Philip, Gomer et al., 2021), discrimination (Merluzzi, Philip, Zhang, & Sullivan, 2015; Merluzzi, Salamanca-Balen & Philip, 2024), and the combination of physical symptoms and life problems (Merluzzi, Zhang, Philip, Lee & Salamanca-Balen, 2022).
2.d. Social Relationship Coping Efficacy - a new perspective on social support that focuses on optimizing one's social network (Merluzzi, Serpentini, et al., 2019; Charos, Merluzzi et al., 2021; Serpentini et al., 2022). The Social Relationship Coping Efficacy Scale (SRCE) is a measure of self-efficacy for maintaining and enhancing social relationships and social support for persons with cancer. An intervention module has been developed based on social relationship coping efficacy that will be tested as part of a larger intervention for teens with cancer (Fladeboe, O’Daffer, Engelberg, Merluzzi et al, 2025)
A copy of the SRCE scale and scoring procedures are contained on the Measures page of this website
2.d. COVID-19 studies of persons with cancer. Work in this area is focused on stress resistance resources (e.g., resilience, tolerance of uncertainty, benefit finding, hope) and their role in the relationship between stress related to the COVID-19 pandemic and quality of life in persons with cancer in early 2020, prior to the availablility of vaccines. One study investigated tolerance of uncertainty as a mediator in the relationship between COVID-19-pandemic stress and quality of life outcomes for those with and without a diagnosis of cancer (Salamanca-Balen, Qiu, & Merluzzi, 2022). A current study (Merluzzi, Salamanca-Balen & Wright, 2025) focused on an examination of resilience theory, especiallly the theoretical and clinical value of distinguising the roles of resilience and coping in the context of pandemic stress.
3. “Letting Go” – Religious/Spiritual Perspectives on Relinquishing Control and Religious Coping
Integration of modern psychological theory with traditional approaches to religious/spiritual coping in persons with cancer
Projects focus on the historical, theoretical/conceptual and practical aspects of relinquishing control or “letting go” (Merluzzi & Philip, 2017; Serpentini, Capovilla, & Merluzzi, 2016) and a theory of hope that integrates uncertainty and control and contextualizes primary and secondary control (e.g., 'letting go") (Salamanca Balen & Merluzzi, 2021). A recent project investigated the mechanism of meaning/peace in the relationship between "letting go" and quality of life outcomes (Merluzzi, Philip, Salamanca-Balen, & Salsman, 2024). Along these same lines, a theoretical paper that appeared in the journal Cancers focuses on reconciling the paradox of palliative care in which patients are encouraged to be agents of their care and, at the same time, accept the uncertainty of their disease and remain hopeful (Merluzzi, Salamanca-Balen, Philip, Salsman, & Chirico, 2024).
Below is a Saturday Scholar Series lecture on Professor Merluzzi's research on "Letting Go" (approximately 55 minutes)
Watch a short video on Letting Goprepared by Jean-François Dars and Anne Papillault as part of their Historie Courteseries
Read an essay on spiritual coping –
Dad and Jimmy Carter by Tom Merluzzi
4. Psychosocial Issues in Racial Health Disparities and Cancer
Projects are focused on a threshold-restraint theory that explains the impact of perceived discrimination on the quality of life of African Americans with cancer (Merluzzi, Philip, Zhang, & Sullivan, 2015). In an attempt to dig deeper into the threshold-restraint theory, a recent study investigated the role of coping in the relationship between perceived subtle and overt microaggressions and quality of life for African American and Caucasian cancer patients (Merluzzi, Salamanca-Balen, & Philip, 2024). An interesting finding is that adaptive disengagement coping (an emotionally healthier form of disengagment than denial/disengagment) was used by African American cancer patients in improving quality of life, but was not used by Caucasian American cancer patients. Thus, adaptive disengagment may be uniquely useful for African American cancer patients to deal with discrimination and enhance quality of life.