The role of self-compassion in adjustment to chronic illness

Living with a chronic illness can have a negative impact on psychological wellbeing, which in turn, may worsen physical health. Therefore, understanding factors that improve wellbeing for those with chronic illnesses is important. This may help in the development of effective psychological treatments for those with a chronic health condition experiencing psychological difficulty. Self-compassion is being compassionate to oneself in the face of suffering and failure. It has three components: self-kindness (being kind to oneself rather than self-critical), common humanity (seeing pain as part of being human rather than isolating) and mindfulness (seeing negative experiences in a balanced way). Self-compassion is one factor that is considered to improve wellbeing in chronic illness populations. This thesis therefore examines the role of self-compassion in adjustment to chronic illness.
Part I aimed to understand whether people with chronic illnesses with more self-compassion have less psychological distress. Studies that look at the relationship between self-compassion and psychological distress were identified and their results were combined to indicate the size of the relationship. Findings showed that self-compassion was strongly linked to reduced psychological distress in chronically ill populations. This suggests that self-compassion may have an important role in reducing psychological distress for those with chronic illnesses and psychological therapies should aim to increase self-compassion to improve wellbeing for this group. Future research in this area is needed to understand how self-compassion increases wellbeing in those with chronic illnesses.
Part II was interested specifically in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). People with IBD may believe others view them negatively because of their condition, which can have a negative impact on their psychological wellbeing. Therefore, this study aimed to understand whether certain facial expressions lead to those with IBD believing they are being negatively evaluated. The study was also interested in how this belief affected the common humanity versus isolation aspect of self-compassion in those with IBD. Reduced common humanity has been linked to depression in this population and so understanding factors that influence it may have important implications for wellbeing. Part II also looked at whether having perfectionistic personality traits increases the belief of those with IBD that others view them negatively as a result of their condition and increases the impact on feelings of common humanity.
Participants completed a survey measuring perfectionistic traits and common humanity and isolation. They also completed a task where they were shown images of positive, negative, or neutral facial expressions and indicated how much they believed the person in the image was negatively evaluating them because of their IBD. Findings showed that those with IBD believe negative and neutral faces may be making negative evaluations about their IBD. This belief did not, for the most part, affect feelings of common humanity. However the belief that they are being negatively evaluated may result in people with a desire to conceal imperfections, feel more isolated. Further research is needed to understand how social interactions involving perceived negative evaluation may influence common humanity in IBD.