The Effect of Schema Therapy on Psychological Capital and Vulnerable Attachmenin Women with Breast Cancer

Abstract

Background: Cancer causes psychological problems, such as anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress, feelings of sadness, and anger, and family problems. Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the effect of schema therapy on psychological capital and vulnerable attachment in women with breast cancer. Methods: The research method was quasi-experimental with a pretest-posttest design and a control group. The statistical population included all women with breast cancer admitted to the Imam Khomeini Hospital, Tehran, Iran, from 23/07/2019 to 20/11/2019. The total number of the patients was 51, of whom 30 were purposefully selected and randomly assigned to an experimental and a control group (15 people in each group). The experimental group was exposed to schema therapy for 11 weekly 90-minute sessions, while the control group did not receive any training. The Luthans Psychological Capital Questionnaire and the Vulnerable Attachment Questionnaire were used to collect data. The collected data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance in SPSS-21 software. Results: The results of paired t-test showed a significant difference between the mean scores of the components of psychological capital and vulnerable attachment in the two experimental and control groups. Therefore, it can be stated that the effectiveness of schema therapy was associated with increased self-efficacy (P = 0.013), hope (P = 0.001), resilience (P = 0.034), optimism (P = 0.001), and decreased vulnerable attachment (P = 0.029). Conclusions: Based on the findings of this study regarding the effect of schema therapy on improving psychological capital and reducing vulnerable attachment, it can be concluded that schema therapy can be used as an effective intervention along with other therapies to reduce the problems of women with breast cancer.