Relationship between Self-compassion and Cognitive Appraisal with Stressful Habits in Women with Multiple Sclerosis (MS)

One of the main problems today’s societies face is ineffective evaluations that result in stress. Therefore, it is clinically necessary to identify the causes and sources of stress as predictors of many diseases. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between self-compassion and cognitive appraisal with stressful habits in women with multiple sclerosis (MS). This research was a cross-sectional, applied descriptive-correlational study. The independence examined data independence by the Durbin-Watson test, and then they were analyzed using regression analysis. The study sample consisted of 130 female MS patients, and the data were collected by using the Self-Compassion Questionnaire (Rees et al., 2011), Kurdon’s Standard Stress Measurement Scale (1967), and the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (Gross and John, 2003)

The regression analysis results showed that cognitive appraisal and self-compassion significantly affected stressful habits in women with MS (p≤0.01). The results also indicated that cognitive appraisal and self-compassion explained 0.43% of the variance of stressful habits in women with MS (R²=0.435). The results revealed a direct relationship between self-unkindness and the prediction of stressful habits (β=0.637). In addition, a significant and positive relationship between self-kind and stressful habits (p<0.01) and also a significant and negative relationship between self-compassion and stressful habits (p<0.01) were found. Finally, the results indicated that there was a significant relationship between cognitive appraisal and its dimensions (re-appraisal and suppression) (p<0.05).