Obstacles to social safeness in women with chronic pain: The role of fears of compassion

The current study examines the mediating role of fears of compassion (for others, from others, for self) between self-compassion and social safeness in a sample of Portuguese women with chronic pain (CP). The recruitment (N = 107) was conducted online and participants responded to a set of self-report questionnaires aimed to assess socio-demographic and medical data, as well as self-compassion, fears of compassion, social safeness, pain intensity, pain-related functional impairment and depressive symptoms. A theory-driven mediational model was built in which fears of compassion mediate the relationship between self-compassion and social safeness, while controlling for pain intensity, functional impairment and depressive symptoms. This was tested using the SPSS macro PROCESS. Results suggest that the relationship between self-compassion and social safeness was mediated by fears of receiving compassion from others, but not by fears of giving compassion to others nor fears of self-compassion. These results yield relevant information to better understand how women with CP experience social safeness and connectedness, with promising clinical implications.