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MohammadReza Tamannaeifar; Azam Mansourinik; Freshteh Malekzadeh Kashani
Abstract
Objective: Chronic pain as a common problem may effect on the physical health, well-being and quality of life in patients. The aim of this study was to examine the mediating role of alexithymia and moderating resilience in the relationship between insecure attachment styles and the quality of life in ...
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Objective: Chronic pain as a common problem may effect on the physical health, well-being and quality of life in patients. The aim of this study was to examine the mediating role of alexithymia and moderating resilience in the relationship between insecure attachment styles and the quality of life in chronic pain patients. Method: This study is a structural equation modeling. Among the chronic patients referred to Kashan therapeutic clinics in 2022, 188 patients were recruited through convenience sampling. In order to collect information, Revised Adult Attachment Scale (Collins & Reid, 1989), Toronto Alexithymia Scale (1992), Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (2003) and Quality of Life Scale (WHOQOL- BREF) were used. Data were analyzed using SPSS and AMOS 24 software. Results: The results of correlation coefficients showed that there are significant negative correlation between the quality of life with anxious insecure attachment, dependency insecure attachment and alexithymia, while there are significant positive correlation between resilience and quality of life (P<0.01). The results showed that the proposed model of the present study has a good fit (x2/df=2.748, p<0.001, CFI= 0.91, RMSEA=0.06). In addition, the results showed that the direct effect of anxious attachment on alexithymia (β= 0.549, P<0.05) and the direct effect of alexithymia on quality of life is significant (β= -0.632, P<0.01). When alexithymia are included as mediator in the relationship between anxious attachment and quality of life, the indirect effect of anxious attachment on quality of life is -0.347, and this indirect effect is significant (P<0.01). Also, the direct effect of dependency attachment on alexithymia is significant (β= 0.297, P<0.05). When alexithymia are included as mediator in the relationship between dependency attachment and quality of life, the indirect effect of dependency attachment on quality of life is -0.188, and this indirect effect is significant (P<0.05). Therefore, The results showed that alexithymia mediates the relationship between anxious insecure attachment and quality of life (β=-0.347, p<0.01) and dependency insecure attachment and quality of life (β=-0.188, p<0.05) in chronic pain patients. Resilience also moderates the relationship between alexithymia and quality of life (β=-0.121, p<0.05). Conclusion: The insecure attachment may effect on quality of life through alexithymia and resilience can be a protective factor against the negative impact of this effect in chronic pain patients. These results have important implications for clinicians and researcher in the field of health psychology. Psycho-educational interventions to identify emotions and describe them and reduce alexithymia can help patients manage their emotions better and improve different aspects of their quality of life. Also, interventions based on resilience can lead to improving the quality of life in chronic pain patients.
