4 research outputs found
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Healing Marks: Body modification in coping with trauma, identity, and its ramifications for stigma and social capital
The purpose of this study is to expand the knowledge base on the experience of living as an individual who engages in body modification. Body modification is the intentional and voluntary alteration of the body for non-medically necessary reasons and not meant to intentionally "harm" oneself. The study seeks to understand how individuals negotiate the personal, emotional, and social experience of engaging in body modification. The specific aims of the research are to:1. Understand the place of body modification in one's life narrative, and how it can be reflective of major transitions and changes.2. Explore subjective experience around the physical and mental health, social, and identity related experiences of people who engage in body modification.3. Increase the knowledge base on how this practice shapes the social experiences of individuals who elect to modify (e.g., at work, with seeking medical or mental health care, in their peer group, with legal authorities, etc.)4. Understand how those who engage in body modification practices negotiate pain and how pain impacted their experience. The methodological approach used in this study includes both interviews and ethnographic immersion. The understanding of how these practice impact one's life is produced through a co-constructed coding rubric created by both the researcher and participant. The researcher works with the participant to represent their lived experience as a modifier by also drawing on their own experiences on the subject. The major contributions of this research is 1) an increased understanding of personal trauma, and its healing through modification and 2) the expression of stigma in medical realms that has previously been unexamined. Additional findings include notions of a priori social difference in the choice of modification that impacts stigma, continued stigma from legal representatives, and the intersectional nature of modified stigma with other social status categories. Finally, this work also further documents the general finding of increased acceptance of body modification in society
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Evaluation of coping as a mediator of the relationship between stressful life events and cancer-related distress.
ObjectiveLifetime stressful life events (SLEs) may predispose oncology patients to cancer-related distress (i.e., intrusive thoughts, hyperarousal, avoidance). Coping may influence cancer-related distress by mediating this relationship. This study sought to (a) determine the prevalence and impact of lifetime SLEs among oncology outpatients receiving chemotherapy and (b) examine the relationship between SLEs and cancer-related distress and the mediating role of coping on this relationship.MethodPatients (n = 957), with breast, gastrointestinal, gynecologic or lung cancer, who were undergoing chemotherapy, completed the Life Stressor Checklist-Revised (LSC-R), a measure of lifetime SLEs. Cancer-related distress was assessed with the Impact of Event Scale-Revised. Coping strategies since beginning chemotherapy were assessed with the Brief COPE; 2 latent variables (engagement and disengagement coping) were identified based on these scores. LSC-R scores (number of SLEs and perceived impact during the prior year) were evaluated in relation to demographic and clinical characteristics. Structural equation modeling was used to evaluate the relationship between LSC-R and Impact of Event Scale-Revised scores and the mediating role of engagement and disengagement coping on this relationship.ResultsOn average, patients reported 6.1 (SD = 4.0; range = 0-23 out of 30) SLEs. Patients who were not married/partnered, had incomes <$30,000/year, or who had lower functional status or greater comorbidity had higher LSC-R scores. The relationship between more SLEs and more severe cancer-related distress was completely mediated by disengagement coping. Engagement coping did not mediate this relationship.ConclusionsDisengagement coping, including behavioral disengagement, avoidance, and denial, should be targeted to mitigate cancer-related distress. (PsycINFO Database Recor