Posttraumatic stressors, maladaptive beliefs, gratitude and psychological vulnerability in breast cancer patients
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Date
2024-07-29
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UMT Lahore
Abstract
The current study explores the relationship among post-traumatic stressors, maladaptive beliefs, gratitude, and psychological vulnerability in breast cancer patients in Pakistan. Using a correlational research design, purposive sampling technique was used to collect data from N = 108 breast cancer patients (age ranging from 40 – 65 years, M= 48.64, SD= 5.92) approached through cancer hospitals. The study adopts a quantitative approach examining the relationship among the variables using Pearson Correlation coefficients analyses in the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22. In order to measure the relevant psychological constructs, following scales were used after obtaining permission from the authors: Post-traumatic Maladaptive Beliefs Scale (PMBS; Foa et al., 1999), the Maladaptive Interpersonal Beliefs Scale (MIBS; Wenzel et al., 2006), the Gratitude Questionnaire-6 (GQ-6; McCullough et al., 2002), and the Psychological Vulnerability Scale (PVS; Goldberg et al., 2006). Results obtained from the analyses revealed post-traumatic stressors and maladaptive beliefs as significant determinants of psychological vulnerability. Findings suggest that gratitude acts as a mediator between post-traumatic stressors and psychological vulnerability, reducing the effect of stressors when considering gratitude. Moreover, post-traumatic stressors and maladaptive beliefs were found to be positively correlated with psychological vulnerability, whereas gratitude exhibited a significantly negative correlation with psychological vulnerability. Furthermore, future research should be directed towards focusing on the development of culturally appropriate interventions. The use of longitudinal designs should be considered to provide an in-depth understanding of pre- and post-diagnosis psychological profiles of the patients.