Attachment and general well-being in breast cancer patients: Mediation of body esteem and social support

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the mediation of body esteem and social support in the relationship between attachment and general well-being in breast cancer patients. We collected data from 150 women with breast cancer and 150 healthy women. Employing bootstrap analysis with 5 000 samples using the ordinary least squares regression, we found that higher attachment avoidance was significantly associated with lower general well-being in both the breast cancer patients and healthy comparison peers. Also, body esteem and social support were significantly associated with attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance and general well-being. Furthermore, body esteem significantly mediated the relationship between attachment avoidance and well-being in breast cancer patients directly through social support; while social support significantly mediated the relationship between attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance and well-being in breast cancer women directly by body esteem. Therefore, body esteem and social support played a chain intermediary role between attachment avoidance and well-being. These findings suggest a need for breast cancer support programmes for women to enhance their body esteem and sense of social support in the context of their recovery efforts.

Keywords:

• attachment
• body esteem
• breast cancer
• social support
• well-being

Acknowledgements

The study participants were from Dazhou Central Hospital and the Chinese women with breast cancer mutual aid exchange group, which is a national online group of women with breast cancer. Thanks to all the women who participated in the study.

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest or funding.

Data availability statement

Data supporting the findings of this study are available upon request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available for privacy and ethical reasons.

Ethics approval statement

This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Department of Psychology at Southwest University (No. H21083) and conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. The data of participants were collected through an online questionnaire, and their informed consent was obtained online.