The Role of Cognitive Emotion Regulation and Positive and Negative Affect in Resiliency of Women with Breast Cancer

Abstract

Introduction: Regarding the role of emotion regulation in choosing a method to overcome stressful situations, the present study aimed to predict resiliency, based on cognitive emotion regulation strategies and positive and negative affect in women with breast cancer. Methods: The method of this study was descriptive correlation. The study sample consisted of 120 women with breast cancer that were selected by the purposive sampling method. For gathering data, the Connor and Davidson Resilience Scale, Garnefski et al. cognitive emotion regulation and Diener et al. positive and negative experiences scale were used. Results: The results showed that the positive cognitive emotion regulation strategies, including positive reappraisal strategies, self-blame, taking a positive point of view and re-consideration of planning in four steps, indicated total predicts of 0.65 of resiliency variance (P > 0.001), but positive and negative emotions were not able to predict resiliency. Resiliency with positive cognitive emotion regulation strategies and positive affect had a significant positive correlation, with negative cognitive emotion regulation strategies, while negative affect had a significant negative correlation (P > 0.001). Conclusions: Based on these results, it can be concluded that strengthening positive cognitive emotion regulations should be regarded as a target for interventions and be included in resiliency training programs.