Relationships between personal resilience, psychological distress, and fatigue among colorectal cancer survivors: mediational role of self-compassion

Personal resilience and self-compassion may promote the use of effective strategies to cope with cancer and reduce posttreatment psychological distress and fatigue, but they have been rarely studied among colorectal cancer survivors. Additionally, the mechanisms underlying relationships among distress, fatigue, resilience, and self-compassion have been rarely examined. This study examined the associations of resilience and self-compassion with distress and fatigue, along with the mediating role of self-compassion in the relationships of resilience with distress and fatigue. A sample of 153 colorectal cancer survivors—diagnosed at stage II or III, 3–19 months since treatment completion, 47% female and 53% male, aged 26–87—completed the Brief Symptom Inventory-18, Fatigue Symptom Inventory, Self-Compassion Scale–Short Form, and Resilience Scale-14. Structural equation modeling was conducted to examine the hypothesized pathways among the study variables. Direct and indirect effects (unstandardized and standardized) were assessed using a bootstrapping test (5,000 bootstrap samples). Resilience and self-compassion were positively associated, and each was negatively associated with distress and fatigue. Controlling for background variables, self-compassion mediated the relationship between resilience and distress and partially mediated the relationship between resilience and fatigue. The results point to the importance of understanding the combined role of resilience and self-compassion in distress and fatigue among colorectal cancer survivors.