ARTICLE INFO

Article Type

Descriptive & Survey Study

Authors

Mikaeili   N. (1)
Einy   S. (* )
Tagavy   R. (2 )






(* ) Psychology Department , Psychology & Educational Sciences Faculty, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabil, Iran
(1) Psychology Department, Psychology and Educational Sciences Faculty, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabil, Iran
(2 ) Psychology Department, Psychology Faculty, Ardabil Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ardabil, Iran

Correspondence

Address: Psychology and Educational Sciences Faculty, End of Daneshgah Street, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabil, Iran
Phone: +98 (45) 33262678
Fax: +98 (45) 33511508
sanaz.einy@yahoo.com

Article History

Received:  November  18, 2016
Accepted:  January 7, 2017
ePublished:  March 10, 2017

BRIEF TEXT


The clinical features of post-traumatic stress disorder are painful sensation of this event, a pattern of avoidance, emotional numbing and relatively constant arousal [1].

… [2-11]. Studies have revealed that the increase of self-compassion can improve the psychological health. Self-compassion can improve a person’s well-being because it helps people to feel safe and have emotional continuity and security [12]. … [13-15]. Another concept related to psychological well-being is a sense of coherence that was introduced by Antonovsky. He defines coherence as a personal orientation to life [16]. …[17-27].

This study aimed to predict psychological well-being of veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder in terms of self-compassion, coherence and thought-action fusion.

This research is descriptive and correlational.

This study was performed in veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder who were hospitalized in Isar Psychiatric Hospital in 2016 in Ardebil city.

Due to the low population size, all the 120 veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder were selected through available sampling as the samples of this study. Inclusion criteria were the absence of psychotic symptoms including hallucinations and delusions, the absence of other diagnoses associated with the disorder, post-traumatic stress such as mood disorders, lack of drug abuse disorders, the minimum education level of primary school and informed consent of the patient for participating in the treatment.

Four tools were used for collecting data: 1. Psychological Well-being Scale: This scale, created in 1989 by Carol Reef, includes 84 questions and 6 factors. The participants respond to the questions in the six-point scale (strongly disagree to strongly agree).47 of the questions are scored directly and 37 are scored inversely. The construct of this questionnaire is valid [28]. In Iran, according to research carried out with students` sample, internal consistency of the questionnaire was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha. The results has been 0.77, 0.78, 0.77, 0.70, 0.71, 0.78, and 0.82 for the components of mastering the environment, personal growth, positive relationships with others, being purposeful in life, self-acceptance, autonomy, and total score respectively. The validity of this questionnaire has been appropriate as well [29]. 2. Self-Compassion Scale: This tool is a self-reporting scale containing 26 questions that was developed in 2003 by Neff, and it includes six subscales of self-kindness, self-judgment, common humanity, isolation, mindfulness and over-identified. Subjects respond to the questions of this questionnaire in a five-point Likert scale from zero (never) to 4 (always). This questionnaire was validated in Iran by Basharpour [30]. In this study the results of exploratory factor analysis revealed six factors with values greater than the sum of 63.47% of total variance. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of the subscales and total score were, also, in the range of 0.65 to 0.92 [30]. 3. 13-Item Sense of Coherence Scale: The short form of Sense of Coherence Scale was developed in 1987 by Antonovsky. This questionnaire has 13 questions that each question is based on seven-point Likert scale and includes three subscales of comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness [31]. In Iran Mohamadzadeh et al. have translated and standardized this questionnaire that cronbach’s alpha in male and female students were 0.75 and 0.78 respectively and the concurrent validity of this scale with the 45-item Questionnaire of Mental Hardiness was 0.54. The test-retest reliability of this questionnaire has been obtained 0.66. Also, to investigate the validity of the questionnaire, these researchers investigated the relation between the subscales of comprehensibility, manageability, and meaningfulness with the whole questionnaire that the coefficients have been 0.86, 0.81 and 0.76 respectively that reflects the appropriate reliability and validity of this scale [32]. 4. Thought-Action Fusion Revised Version (TAFS-R): This scale is a self-report instrument which has been designed by Shafran et al. in 1996 and it has 19 items. 12 items are related to moral though-action fusion and the other 7 items are related to likelihood thought-action fusion. The items are responded in a five-point Likert scale from zero (totally disagree) to 4 (totally agree) by the subjects. The score range is zero to 76 and the higher score indicates the higher thought-action fusion. Shafran et al. has reported the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of this scale and its subscale in the range of 0.85 to 0.96 [33]. PoorFaraj et al. has estimated the internal consistency of Cronbach`s alpha coefficients 0.81 for the total scale and 0.79 to 0.95 for the subscales. The reliability coefficients obtained from test-retest was 0.61 for the whole scale and 0.59 to 0.63 for the subscales [34]. Data analysis were done using Pearson correlation test and multiple regression analysis as well as SPSS17 statistical software.

The sample included 120 veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder with the mean age of 49.54±10.26 years that were in the age range of 38 and 72 years. 37 (30.8%) of them were single and 83(69.2%) were married. 48 (40.0%) of the veterans had the education level of less than diploma and 72 (60.0%) had diploma and higher level of education. Also, 24 (20.0%) of them were employed; 59 (49.2%) were self-employed and 37 (30.8%) were unemployed or retired. Psychological well-being of the veterans with PTSD had positive relation with comprehensibility, manageability and self-kindness and had negative relation with action-thought fusion disorder and likelihood of action-thought fusion (Table 1). Sense of coherence (comprehensibility, manageability, meaningfulness) could predict 63% of variance of the scores of psychological well-being of veterans with PTSD (p<0.001) that comprehensibility (p<0.001; t=3.45), manageability (p<0.001; t=3.92), and meaningfulness (p<0.001; t=3.45), could directly predict the psychological well-being of the veterans. Also, thought-action fusion (though-action fusion disorder, thought-action fusion likelihood) could predict 49% of variance in the scores of psychological well-being of the veterans with PTSD (p<0.001) that thought-action fusion disorder (p<0.0001; t=-7.20) and thought-action fusion likelihood (p<0.016; t=-2.44) could reversely predict psychological well-being of the veterans with PTSD. Also, the self-compassion could predict 67% of variance of scores of the psychological well-being of the veterans with PTSD (p<0.001) that this prediction was direct (p<0001; t=15.54).

63% sense of variance in psychological well-being of the veterans with PTSD is explained by sense of coherence. This finding is in consistent with the results of inside and outside studies [15, 18, and 20).

It is suggested that in future studies the role of micro-scales of self-compassion in predicting psychological well-being of the veterans with PTSD be studied.

The current study had some limitations. For instance, the research was conducted on the veterans with PTSD who were hospitalized in Isar Hospital in Ardebil and it is difficult to generalize the results to the other cities.

The sense of coherence, self-compassion, and low thought –action fusion improves psychological well-being of veterans with PTSD.

The authors of this article appreciate the cooperation of dear veterans in Ardebil Isar Psychiatric Hospital as well as the supports from the authorities of Foundation of Martyr and Veterans Affairs.

Non-declared

Before conducting the study, the necessary coordination with Ardebil Province Foundation of Martyr and Veterans Affairs was made.

This study is taken from a research a work and no financial support has been received from any institution or organization.

TABLES and CHARTS

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CITIATION LINKS

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