How does self-compassion affect posttraumatic adaptation among lymphoma patients? A perspective based on network analysis

Background: Self-compassion, defined as the ability to treat oneself with kindness during suffering, serves as a protective factor for posttraumatic adaptation in cancer patients. However, the functional distinctions between different components of self-compassion in shaping posttraumatic adaptation among lymphoma patients remain unclear.Objective: This study employed network analysis to examine the relationships between self-compassion components and posttraumatic adaptation in lymphoma patients.Methods: Patients diagnosed with lymphoma (n = 233) completed a cross-sectional questionnaire survey. Considering that posttraumatic adaptation is a multidimensional construct, this study operationalised it through two key concepts: posttraumatic stress (representing negative adaptation) and posttraumatic growth (representing positive adaptation). Gaussian graphical model (GGM) and directed acyclic graph (DAG) were used to construct network structures linking self-compassion components to posttraumatic stress and posttraumatic growth.Results: Positive self-compassion (i.e. self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness) was positively associated with posttraumatic growth across its domains but showed no significant links to posttraumatic stress symptom clusters. Conversely, negative self-compassion (i.e. self-judgment, isolation, and over-identification) was positively associated with posttraumatic stress symptom clusters, with no significant connections to posttraumatic growth domains. DAG provided further support for the identification of the undirected network and indicated differential roles of mindfulness and over-identification in relation to posttraumatic growth and posttraumatic stress symptoms.Conclusions: The findings suggest that distinct components of self-compassion may play distinct roles in both positive and negative posttraumatic adaptation in lymphoma patients. However, these results are preliminary and hypothesis-generating. Longitudinal and experimental studies are needed to examine whether targeting specific positive or negative components results in different changes in posttraumatic stress and growth.