(PS6-B27) Pain Interference Mediates the Relation of Emotional Child Abuse and Fear of Cancer Recurrence

Approximately 20-79% of cancer survivors experience fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) (Simard et al., 2010; Simard et al., 2013). High FCR is associated with poor health outcomes due to associated maladaptive thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that negatively influence health behaviors (Hall et al., 2019). Pain is also commonly endorsed by cancer survivors and is positively associated with fear of cancer recurrence (Cunningham et al., 2021; Janz et al., 2011). Indeed, the Cancer Threat Interpretation Model suggests that cognitive biases, such as high threat appraisal and low pain coping expectancy, increase the saliency of pain as a threatening cue for worry about cancer recurrence (Heathcote & Eccleston, 2017; Tuman et al., 2021). Notably, childhood emotional abuse is associated with increased pain and emotion dysregulation in adulthood (Powers et al., 2014; Prangnell et al., 2020) and, among cancer survivors, childhood trauma is associated with elevated cancer related distress (Goldsmith et al., 2010). Thus, cancer survivors who experienced childhood trauma may have elevated pain experiences that could contribute to high FCR. However, no research has investigated these relations. Thus, the current study aimed to evaluate pain interference as a mediator of the childhood emotional abuse-FCR relation using cross-sectional survey data provided by adult cancer survivors (N = 35, Female = 34, M_age = 56.4, SD_age = 12.1, Range = 35—81). A path analytic regression model that implemented 5000 bootstrapped samples indicated pain interference significantly mediated the relation of childhood emotional abuse and fear of cancer recurrence, ab = .32, SE = .67, 95% CI [.32, 2.89]. After accounting for pain interference, the direct path from childhood emotional abuse to FCR was not significant, b = -.01, SE = .73, 95% CI [-1.50, 1.48]. Theoretical and potential treatment implications will be discussed.