Mediating Role of Cognitive Emotion RegulationStrategies in the Relationship Between Anxiety andBody Image in Women With Breast CancerVolunteered for Mastectomy

Background: the loss of breast is a major concern for women with breast cancer volunteer formastectomy, because they feel that their feminine identity is at risk of damage. the present studyaims to investigate the mediating role of cognitive emotion regulation (cer) in the relationshipbetween anxiety and body image in women with breast cancer volunteered for mastectomy.methods: the is a correlational study. the study population consists of all women with breastcancer volunteered for mastectomy referred to imam khomeini and imam hossein hospitals intehran, iran. of these, 350 volunteers were selected by a convenience sampling method. theinstruments were beck anxiety inventorry, body image and relationship scale of hormes etal., and cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire of garnefski et al. structural equationmodeling were used to analyze the research hypotheses.results: anxiety had a positive effect on maladaptive cer strategies (β=0.654) and a negativeeffect on body image (β=-0.574) (p<0.001). the direct effect of maladaptive cer strategieson body image was positive and significant (β=0.271, p<0.05). the direct effects of anxiety onadaptive cer strategies (β=-0.836) and body image (β=-0.849) were negative and significant(p<0.001). the direct effect of adaptive cer strategies on body image was negative andsignificant (β=-0.266, p<0.001).conclusion: women undergoing mastectomy will experience more anxiety and negative bodyimage if they use maladaptive cer strategies, while those who use adaptive cer strategies willexperience less anxiety and negative body image.