A woman’s worth: Self-compassion as a mediator between optimism and beliefs about motherhood, identity, and infertility of women with endometriosis

Andreea Ursu
In: Journal of Health Psychology · 2026 · pp. 13591053261449652 · doi:10.1177/13591053261449652 · PMID:42244071 · W7163708932
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⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-08 ⓘ

This study found that self-compassion mediated the relationship between trait optimism and women's beliefs about their identity, motherhood, and infertility in the context of endometriosis.

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Abstract

The aim of the present study was to analyze the mediating role of self-compassion between trait optimism and beliefs about woman identity, motherhood and infertility among women with endometriosis, adjusting for endometriosis stage and operation status. The participants were 139 women diagnosed with endometriosis ( M age = 33.32, SD = 6.61) from a community sample who completed the scales online. The results showed positive correlations between trait optimism and self-compassion and negative correlations between trait optimism, self-compassion and beliefs about woman identity, motherhood, and infertility. The mediation analyses showed that self-compassion mediated the effect of trait optimism on beliefs about woman identity, motherhood and infertility. Neither the endometriosis stage nor the operation status was significant when included as covariates. These results suggest that self-compassion might serve as an important strategy when facing chronic illnesses such as endometriosis and its effects, such as infertility.

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Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. Outer rings show 2-hop neighbours — papers reached through the immediate citers/citees. [ collapse to 1-hop ]

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