MSc theses on breast cancer, chronic illness, and COVID-19 survivors successfully defended

Four master’s students at Örebro University, Sweden, have recently completed two MSc theses within projects being conducted at the EMBRACE Lab. These studies, building upon Inês’ past work and data, provide new insights into the field of psychology, focusing on how illness-related stigma, shame, and fear of compassion impact mental health outcomes in illness populations. We congratulate Saga Berglund, Anna Åberg Danielsson, Maria Gustafsson, and Allen Ismail on their hard work and the acceptance of their theses. The promising results from the studies are expected to be published in scientific journals in the near future. We look forward to following their future contributions to the field!

From left to right: Saga Berglund and Anna Åberg Danielsson.

From left to right: Maria Gustafsson and Allen Ismail.

Shame and Stigma in People With Chronic Illness and SARS-CoV-2 Survivors: The Mediating Role of Self-compassion and Psychological Flexibility

Authors: Saga Berglund and Anna Åberg Danielsson

Summary of the study: We have investigated the associations of illness-related stigma and illness-related shame with anxiety and depressive symptoms, and also explored the mediating role of self-compassion and psychological flexibility in this association in a chronic illness and SARS-CoV-2 survivors’ sample. We then also compared the samples on the path model we created in order to explore similarities and differences between the groups.

Fear of Receiving Compassion as a Moderator of the Association Between Self-Compassion and Psychological Distress Among Women With Breast Cancer

Authors: Maria Gustafsson and Allen Ismail

Summary: For our master's thesis we had access to data from the Mind Pilot Project which contains data from women with not metastasized breast cancer. We investigated the moderating role of fear of receiving compassion from others in three models: a) on the association between self-compassion and depressive symptoms, with age as covariate, b) on the association between self-compassion and anxiety, with age, years of education and cancer-stage as covariates, and c) on the association between self-compassion and stress. One of the moderation-models proved to be significant. The association between self-compassion and depressive symptoms (with age as a covariate) was significant at high and moderate levels of the moderator. At low levels of the moderator, the association between self-compassion and depressive symptoms was non-significant. Fear of receiving compassion from others did not moderate the associations between self-compassion and anxiety or between self-compassion and stress.