Xiaoyan Xie,1 Ting Sun,2 Yumei Wu,1 Liping Dong2 

1Department of Hematology, Northern Jiangsu People’s Hospital, Yangzhou, 225001, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Clinical Psychology, Northern Jiangsu People’s Hospital, Yangzhou, 225001, People’s Republic of China

Correspondence: Yumei Wu, Department of hematology, Northern Jiangsu People’s Hospital, No. 98, Nantong West Road, Yangzhou, 225001, People’s Republic of China, Email 18952578625@163.com Liping Dong, Department of Clinical Psychology, Northern Jiangsu People’s Hospital, No. 98, Nantong West Road, Yangzhou, 225001, People’s Republic of China, Email Lipingdong001@163.com

Background: Psychological distress is common among young and middle-aged lymphoma patients. Psychological resilience and emotion regulation are key factors in coping with cancer, but their interrelationships remain unclear. Clinical psychologists play a crucial role in addressing psychological resilience and distress by providing therapeutic interventions that enhance coping mechanisms and emotion regulation. This study examines the mediating role of difficulties in emotion regulation between psychological resilience and psychological distress.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among lymphoma patients at Northern Jiangsu People’s Hospital from January to December 2023. Psychological resilience, distress, and emotion regulation were assessed using standardized scales. SPSS 26.0 was used for descriptive statistics and spearman correlation analysis. PROCESS 4.0 was used to calculate the significance of the mediating effects of the variables.
Results: Patients had a psychological resilience score of 5.72 ± 2.31, a difficulties in emotion regulation score of 95.22 ± 8.86, and a psychological distress score of 5.72 ± 2.31. Psychological resilience was negatively correlated with both difficulties in emotion regulation (r = − 0.28, P < 0.01) and psychological distress (r = − 0.31, P < 0.01), while difficulties in emotion regulation were positively correlated with distress (r = 0.29, P < 0.01). Mediation analysis confirmed that difficulties in emotion regulation fully mediated the link between resilience and distress (effect size = − 0.310, 95% CI: − 1.195, − 0.136).
Conclusion: Difficulties in emotion regulation partially mediate the relationship between psychological resilience and distress. Enhancing resilience and improving emotion regulation may help alleviate distress, emphasizing the need for targeted psychological interventions in young and middle-aged lymphoma patients.

Keywords: lymphoma, psychological resilience, psychological distress, emotion regulation, young and middle-aged