The Role of Disease Perception, Religious Coping Strategies, and Cognitive Regulation of Emotion in Predicting Adaptation to the Disease in People with Multiple Sclerosis (MS)

Multiple sclerosis is one of the most common chronic disorders of the central nervous system, which causes many psychological problems in patients. Therefore, this research aimed to investigate the role of disease perception, religious coping strategies, and cognitive emotion regulation in predicting adaptation to the disease in people with multiple sclerosis (MS).

The current research had a descriptive and correlational design. The statistical population included all people with multiple sclerosis in Shiraz. For this purpose, 113 people were selected by convenience sampling method. The research tools included questionnaires of adaptation to the disease, perception of the disease, religious coping, and cognitive emotion regulation strategies. To analyze the data, multiple linear regression was used with SPSS software, version 20.

The results of the regression analysis showed that among the components of illness perception, the components of the outcome, emotional response, and the nature of the disease are negative predictors, and personal control is a positive predictor, and among the components of religious coping, negative religious coping is a negative predictor, and Benevolent coping is a positive predictor and also among the components of cognitive emotion regulation, positive reappraisal, refocusing on planning and perspective-taking, were  positive predictors and rumination, and catastrophizing were significant negative predictors of adaptation to the disease in people affected by  multiple sclerosis.

According to the obtained results, it can be claimed that psychological variables play an important role in adapting to the disease in people with multiple sclerosis.