L’immagine corporea in donne con tumore al seno. Una ricerca entro una prospettiva relazionale.

The general purpose of this work is to explore how individual and relational variables can affect the well-being and the body perception of women with breast cancer, differentiating psychological patterns of cognitive, emotional and relational processes. This exploratory study investigates individual (body image, anxiety, depression, personality, coping, resilience) and relational (dyadic coping and emotional closeness to the partner) variables of 30 subjects (15 patients and 15 partners). The analysis show two different profiles: low levels of altered body perception correspond to a general overall well-being and a better couple behaviour; otherwise anxiety, depression and worst dyadic relationship are associated with deteriorated body perception. The findings suggest the importance of relational components on the overall weel-being of women with Breast cancer and their partners and support the idea of a dyadically oriented perspective in studying breast cancer patients.