Health locus of control and fear of cancer recurrence: the moderating role of emotion regulation in cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses

Objective Health locus of control (HLC) encompasses beliefs about control over illness from three sources: 'internal', 'powerful others', and 'chance'. An internal locus is adaptive in cancer patients, while powerful others and chance loci predict psychological distress. We examined the association between HLC and fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) in cancer survivors, considering the moderating role of emotion regulation.