Effectiveness of Transdiagnostic Intervention and Mindfulness-Based Schema Therapy on Cancer Self-Efficacy and Resilience in Women with Breast Cancer

Diagnosis of cancer is very distressing and causes a lack of control and insecurity in the suffering person. Resilience and self-efficacy are two essential support factors that can help these people; therefore, the present study aimed to compare the effectiveness of mindfulness-based schema therapy and transdiagnostic intervention in women with breast cancer on cancer self-efficacy and resilience along with a follow-up period.

The research method was quasi-experimental with a pretest-posttest design and a follow-up period of 45 days. The statistical population included female patients with breast cancer in 2019-2022 referred to Omid and Imam Reza hospitals in Mashhad, Iran. The instruments were the Cancer Self-efficacy Questionnaire of Champion et al. (2013) and the Cancer Resilience Questionnaire of Sonaga and Futavatari (2018). In total, 41 subjects were purposefully selected from the population and randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. For the two experimental groups, the intervention was performed for 10 weekly sessions. Data analysis was performed using the repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) test and Bonferroni post hoc test using the SPSS statistical software (version 25) at the significance level of 0.05.

There was a significant difference between the mean scores of the first and second experimental groups and the control group in the post-test and follow-up concerning resilience (P<0.007) and self-efficacy (P<0.01). On the other hand, there was no significant difference between transdiagnostic effectiveness and mindfulness-based schema therapy in the post-test and follow-up (P>0.05).

Based on the present findings, it is suggested to reduce the psychological problems of women with breast cancer through mindfulness-based schema therapy and transdiagnostic treatment