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Assessment of Chronic Illness-Related Cognitive Fusion: Preliminary Development and Validation of a New Scale with an IBD Sample

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Abstract

Although research recognizes the advantages of creating specific content measures, no specific measure of chronic illness-related cognitive fusion had been developed to date. The current study presents the development and validation of the Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire-Chronic Illness (CFQ-CI) in a sample of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients and the analysis of the role of this construct in the psychological health of those patients. Results indicated that the 7-item CFQ-CI was a unidimensional measure of cognitive fusion in patients with chronic illnesses, and that scores had adequate/good internal consistency and construct, convergent, and discriminant validity. This study also showed that chronic illness-related cognitive fusion as assessed by the CFQ-CI acted as a mediator in the association between both IBD-related symptoms and shame with quality of life. The development of the CFQ-CI may thus contribute to a better understanding of the mechanisms influencing functional outcomes in chronic illness.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful for the help provided by the Portuguese Association for IBD (Associação Portuguesa para a Doença Inflamatória do Intestino; APDI) during the recruitment process of the current research project. We would also like to thank the Editor and Reviewers of this manuscript for their input and help in improving the manuscript.

Funding

This research has been supported by the first author (Inês A. Trindade), PhD Grant (SFRH/BD/101906/2014) sponsored by FCT (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CINEICC – Cognitive and Behavioural Centre for Research and Intervention, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Coimbra, Rua do Colégio Novo, Apartado 6153, 3001-802, Coimbra, Portugal

    Inês A. Trindade, Cláudia Ferreira & José Pinto-Gouveia

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  1. Inês A. Trindade
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  2. Cláudia Ferreira
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  3. José Pinto-Gouveia
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Correspondence to Inês A. Trindade.

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Conflict of interest

Inês A. Trindade, Cláudia Ferreira, and José Pinto-Gouveia declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Human and Animal Rights

All procedures were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committees and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Appendix 1: Portuguese Version of the CFQ-CI

Appendix 1: Portuguese Version of the CFQ-CI

CFQ-CI

Instruções: Em baixo, encontrará uma lista de afirmações. Por favor, classifique o quanto é verdadeira para si cada afirmação, rodeando para esse efeito um dos números que se encontra em frente a cada frase. Responda, por favor, a cada frase, usando a seguinte escala.

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Trindade, I.A., Ferreira, C. & Pinto-Gouveia, J. Assessment of Chronic Illness-Related Cognitive Fusion: Preliminary Development and Validation of a New Scale with an IBD Sample. J Clin Psychol Med Settings 25, 356–366 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10880-017-9536-5

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