A CLOSER LOOK AT THE PAST TRAUMATIC EXPERIENCES AND CURRENT UNCONDITIONAL SELF-ACCEPTANCE OF WOMEN WITH HASHIMOTO’S DISEASE: A QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS

Abstract

Little is known about the experiences of women with Hashimoto's disease in the Turkish population, from a psychological perspective. As this condition is three times more frequent among women, women were recruited for this study and twenty-five Turkish women, living in the city of Istanbul, Turkey, volunteered to participate. Participants were between 18 and 45 years of age, diagnosed Hashimoto’s patients with no other serious medical illness and/or psychiatric or neurological disorder. Their past traumatic experiences and current level of unconditional self-acceptance were evaluated in the scope of the qualitative research interview and two self-report scales: the Traumatic Experiences Questionnaire (TEC) and the Unconditional Self-Acceptance Questionnaire (USAQ). An inductive analysis of interviews identified eight main themes, the most important indicating that these women had a poor mother-daughter bond since their youth. Analysis of the TEC demonstrated that a history of sexual trauma does not have a significant relationship with having been diagnosed with Hashimoto's while the majority of the participants scored low on the USAQ. Suggestions for future studies and the treatment of those with Hashimoto's disease are discussed.