Self-Compassion and Psychological Wellbeing Among Patients With Hepatitis-C: Social Support as Moderator

Being a fatal and serious illness, hepatitis C is not only a physical disease but also carries economic, emotional, and social pressures, putting the patient at risk for developing serious mental health issues. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between self-compassion and psychological wellbeing moderated by social support among hepatitis C patients. This cross-sectional correlational study examined 260 patients of hepatitis C including men (131) and women (129) from different hospitals of Rawalpindi, Islamabad, and Attock through Self-Compassion Scale (Neff, 2003), World Health Organization (Five) Wellbeing Index (World Health Organization, 2018), and Multidimensional Social Support Scale (Winefield et al., 1992). Sample was selected through convenient sampling technique. Study findings indicated that various domains of self-compassion jointly produced 37% of variance while social support produced 44% of joint variance in explaining psychological wellbeing among patients with hepatitis C Individually, common humanity domain of self-compassion was observed to be the most significant positive predictor whereas isolation was the most significant negative predictor of psychological wellbeing. The moderating effect of social support from family and supervisors strengthened the relationship between self-compassion and psychological wellbeing among patients with hepatitis C. In addition, demographic characteristics of the patients were also examined for differences in self-compassion, social support, and psychological wellbeing of the patients. Findings of the study have been discussed in the light of previous literature and cultural context.