Association between psychological flexibility and self-perceived burden in patients with cervical cancer: A computer-simulated network analysis

Purpose: The study aimed to identify the profiles of psychological flexibility in patients with cervical cancer and how self-perceived burden networked to different psychological flexibility profiles. Methods: The Personalized Psychological Flexibility Index and the Self-Perceived Burden for Cancer Patients were used to measure psychological flexibility and self-perceived burden in patients from the "Be Resilient to Cancer" project. Latent profile analysis was used to identify profiles and computer-simulated network analysis was conducted to determine if self-perceived burden networked to any of the psychological flexibility profiles. Results: A total of 325 patients with cervical cancer were recruited in this study. Mean age was 42.26 years, the majority were married (71%) and 75.4% had early stage disease (I or II). Three profiles of psychological flexibility were identified: moderate avoidance-low acceptance/harnessing (34.8%), high avoidance-moderate acceptance/harnessing (36.9%), low avoidance and high acceptance/harnessing (28.3%). Furthermore, "worrying about damaging family relationships" and "feeling guilty about affecting family's life plans" were the most bridge symptoms as well as the targeted intervention symptoms for alleviating and aggravating the selfperceived burden respectively. Conclusion: Three patterns of psychological flexibility were recognized with two symptoms might be targeted to improve the self-perceived burden in women with cervical cancer.