Implicit Theories of Emotion, Goals for Emotion Regulation, and Cognitive Responses to Negative Life Events

The relationship between fear of cancer recurrence and death anxiety among Chinese cancer patients: the serial mediation model

AIMS

This study aims to investigate the association between fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) and death anxiety (DA) among Chinese cancer patients, while considering the mediating effects of experiential avoidance (EA) and meaning in life (MIL).

METHODS

From February to June 2023, convenience sampling was used to select newly diagnosed cancer patients in a tertiary Cancer Hospital in Chinese Hunan Province as the survey objects. A total of 436 cancer patients completed the Fear of Cancer Recurrence Inventory, the Meaning in Life Questionnaire, the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II, and the Templer's death anxiety scale. Descriptive analysis and Pearson correlation analysis were conducted using SPSS 28.0 software. Serial mediation analysis was performed by Hayes' PROCESS macro.

RESULTS

Gender, age, educational level, marital status, residence, occupation, per capita monthly household income, tumor type, and cancer stage were controlled in the model. The results revealed that fear of cancer recurrence had a significant direct effect on death anxiety (Effect = 0.075, 95% CI: 0.064 to 0.087). Additionally, three indirect pathways were identified: (1) through experiential avoidance (Effect = 0.037, 95% CI: 0.026 to 0.049), (2) through meaning in life (Effect = 0.022, 95% CI: 0.014 to 0.031), and (3) through the serial mediators involving meaning in life and experiential avoidance (Effect = 0.016, 95% CI: 0.010 to 0.023). The total indirect effect of the three mediation paths was 63.56%.

CONCLUSION

Fear of cancer recurrence is a significant psychological distress experienced by cancer patients, which not only directly contributes to death anxiety but also may triggers changes, such as experiential avoidance and meaning in life. Ultimately, this comprehensive psychological distress leads to death anxiety.

The effect of emotion regulation on empathic ability in Chinese nursing students: The parallel mediating role of emotional intelligence and self-consistency congruence

AIM

This study aims to explore the influence of emotion regulation on empathic ability among undergraduate nursing students, as well as the mediating role of emotional intelligence and self-consistency congruence.

DESIGN

A cross-sectional study was employed to examine the relationship between the emotion regulation and empathic ability in Chinese nursing students.

METHODS

A total of 761 undergraduate nursing students were surveyed using the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Chinese version), the Gross Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, Wang and Law's Emotional Intelligence Scale and the Self-Harmony Scale.

RESULTS

There was a significant positive correlation between emotion regulation, empathic ability and self-harmony. Significant positive correlations were also found between emotion regulation, empathic ability and emotional intelligence. Mediation analysis revealed that self-harmony and emotional intelligence partially mediated the predictive relationship between emotion regulation and empathic ability, with self-harmony showing a more significant mediating effect.

CONCLUSION

The findings suggest that emotion regulation among undergraduate nursing students indirectly influences their empathic ability through parallel mediating effects of self-harmony and emotional intelligence.

Shame-coping clusters: comparisons regarding attachment insecurities, mentalizing deficits, and personality pathology, controlling for general emotion dysregulation

BACKGROUND

General Emotion Dysregulation (GED) is increasingly implicated as an underlying factor in personality pathology; however, the regulation of specific emotions, such as shame, has been relatively overlooked in the literature. We aimed to identify distinct clusters of shame-coping/regulation and compare them regarding attachment insecurities, mentalizing deficits, and personality pathology, controlling for GED.

METHODS

A convenience sample of 600 participants (351 females and 249 males) from the general population with ages ranging from 18 to 65 (M = 33.78, SD = 12.80) completed a battery of self-report instruments, measuring shame-coping styles, GED, attachment insecurities, mentalizing deficits, criteria A and B of the alternative model for personality disorders, and borderline personality traits. A two-stage clustering method was employed, with shame-coping styles as the clustering variables. The identified clusters were then compared for their effects on dependent variables using multivariate and univariate analyses. These comparisons were also performed after controlling for GED.

RESULTS

Multiple determination methods suggested a two-cluster solution: maladaptive and adaptive shame-coping. Attack-self, withdrawal, and attack-other styles were the main discriminators. Compared with the adaptive cluster, the maladaptive cluster was characterized by higher use of maladaptive and lower use of adaptive shame-coping styles. Multivariate analyses demonstrated significant differences for all the between-cluster comparisons, with and without GED as the covariate (p < .001).

CONCLUSIONS

The current study provides evidence for the presence of homogenous clusters of shame-coping in community-based adults. Between-cluster contrasts after controlling for GED suggest that addressing shame-coping could have incremental utility over and above GED.