RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SELF-COMPASSION AND RESILIENCE AMONG BREAST CANCER PATIENTS, MEDIATING EFFECT OF BODY SURVEILLANCE AND BODY SHAME

Abstract

Introduction Breast cancer is a highly prevalent cancer in females. Self-compassion refers to how we relate ourselves in instances of inadequacy, or personal suffering. Resilience means positive adjustment in the stressful situation. Body surveillance, the habitual and constant monitoring of the body and Body shame is the act of subjecting someone to criticism for supposed bodily faults. Purpose To examine whether body surveillance and body shame mediated the relationship between self-compassion and resilience among breast cancer patients. Methods A total of 120 women with breast cancer completed self-report measurements of demographic, Self-Compassion Scale, Brief Resilience scale and Objectified Body Consciousness scale from multiple hospitals. Data analysis was performed by correlation analysis and process MACRO to verify the relationship between variables and mediating variables. Conclusion The pilot study stated that Cronbach’s alpha reliability of self-compassion scale is 0.54, brief resilience scale is 0.67 and objectified body consciousness scale is 0.87. The result indicated that the links of self-compassion and resilience was partially mediated by body surveillance and body shame. Self-compassion can partially counteract patients’ irrational perceptions of their appearance and improve their resilience by reducing body surveillance and further reducing body shame.