In the early post-transplant period, psychological resilience is statistically associated with emotional health and may serve as an important mediator linking perceived social support to lower levels of emotional distress.
Key Findings
Results
Transplant recipients reported moderate to high psychological resilience and high perceived social support, particularly from family and significant others, along with low to moderate emotional distress.
Study assessed participants the day before hospital discharge after transplantation, with a mean hospital stay of 19.62 days
Sample included 117 participants across 4 transplant centers in Poland
68.4% were kidney transplant recipients and 31.6% were liver transplant recipients
Psychological resilience was measured with the Psychological Resilience Scale (SPP-25) and emotional distress with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS)
Results
The association between perceived social support and emotional distress was statistically significant only as an indirect effect mediated by psychological resilience, not as a direct effect.
Cross-sectional mediation analyses tested an indirect-effect model with MSPSS as the independent variable, SPP-25 as the mediator, and HADS as the outcome variable
Direct effects of perceived social support on emotional distress were not statistically significant
Only indirect effects through psychological resilience reached statistical significance
The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) was used to assess perceived social support
Conclusions
Psychological resilience functioned as a mediator linking perceived social support to lower levels of emotional distress in the early post-transplant period.
The study used a cross-sectional indirect-effect model design
The mediation model was consistent with theoretical frameworks of psychological adaptation after transplantation
Authors note this finding underscores the need for longitudinal studies to clarify temporal relationships in psychological adaptation after transplantation
The study was conducted as a multicenter, cross-sectional study at 4 transplant centers in Poland
Background
The role of psychological resilience in the early post-transplant period had been insufficiently explored prior to this study.
Psychological resilience is described as 'an increasingly recognized important protective factor for emotional health after solid organ transplantation'
The study specifically targeted the period immediately before hospital discharge following transplantation
The authors identify this early post-transplant period as a gap in the existing literature
What This Means
This research examined how psychological resilience — the ability to cope and recover from adversity — relates to emotional wellbeing in people who had recently received a kidney or liver transplant. The study followed 117 transplant patients across four hospitals in Poland, assessing them just before they were discharged home after their transplant surgery (on average about 20 days after their operation). Researchers measured patients' perceived social support (how supported they felt by family, friends, and significant others), their psychological resilience, and their levels of anxiety and depression.
The key finding was that social support from family and loved ones did not directly reduce patients' emotional distress on its own. Instead, its beneficial effect worked indirectly — social support appeared to strengthen patients' psychological resilience, and it was that resilience which was then associated with lower anxiety and depression. In other words, feeling supported seemed to help build inner coping strength, which in turn helped protect emotional health during this vulnerable early recovery period.
This research suggests that psychological resilience plays a central role in emotional adaptation after organ transplantation, even in the very early stages of recovery. It implies that healthcare teams working with transplant patients might benefit from considering how to identify and support patients who have lower resilience, and how social support systems could be leveraged to strengthen coping capacity. The authors caution that because this was a snapshot study taken at one point in time, future studies following patients over a longer period are needed to better understand how these psychological factors evolve during recovery.
Hreńczuk M, Piątek T, Gotlib-Małkowska J, Panczyk M, Małkowski P. (2026). Role of Psychological Resilience on Emotional Health in Kidney and Liver Transplant Recipients.. Annals of transplantation. https://doi.org/10.12659/AOT.952824