Body Image Concerns, Self-compassion, Psychological and Sexual Distress in Patients with Mastectomy

Author: Rabiya Amer Bashir

Supervisor: Asma Yousaf

Degree: BS

Year: 2010-2014

University: Institute of Applied Psychology, Punjab University, Lahore, Pakistan

Abstract

The present study was conducted to determine the body image concerns, self-compassion, psychological and sexual distress in patients with mastectomy. It was hypothesized that there will likely to be a relationship in body image, self-compassion, psychological and sexual distress in patients with mastectomy. It was also hypothesized that body image and self-compassion will likely to predict psychological and sexual distress in patients with mastectomy. The correlational research design and purposive sampling technique was used in the current study. The sample size for this study were 74 women patients with age range of 25-50 years with (M= 37, SD= 7.25). Patients were recruited from three government and one private hospitals of Lahore. Demographic questionnaire, Body Image Scale (Hopwood, Fletcher, Lee & AlGhazal, 2001), Self-compassion Scale (Neff, 2003), Kessler Distress Scale (Kessler, Andrew & Colpe, 2002) and Female Sexual Distress Scale (Derogatis et al. 2008) were administered as measuring instruments. The descriptive statistics for demographic characteristics revealed that most of the patients were illiterate and mastectomy has adverse effects on their marital, psychological, social and physical life. The Pearson product moment correlation revealed that there was a significant inverse relationship in body image and self-compassion (p<.01) and there was a significant positive relationship in body image and psychological and sexual distress (p<.01). Stepwise regression analysis showed that body image is the significant predictor of psychological distress (p<.001) while both body image and self-compassion were significant predictors of sexual distress (p<.001). The findings of the study could be used to design intervention programs to foster the level of self-compassion in patients to help them cope with the illness.

Keywords: Body Image Concerns, Self-compassion.

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Corresponding Address: Department of Applied Psychology, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. Email: chairperson@appsy.pu.edu.pk, Phone: 92-42-9231245