Abstract: Objective: To analyze the mediating roles that psychological resilience and perceived control between social support and psychological distress among kidney transplant recipients, aiming to provid references for formulating intervention strategies for reducing the psychological distress of kidney transplant recipients. Methods: Using convenience sampling, a questionnaire survey was conducted among 428 kidney transplant recipients in the stable stage at a tertiary grade A hospital in Changsha from August to December 2023. The survey instruments encompassed the Distress Management Screening Measure, the Multidimensional Health Locus of Control, the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, and the Social Support Rating Scale. Path analysis was performed using Mplus 8.3 software. Results: The prevalence of psychological distress among the 428 kidney transplant recipients was 37.9%. The path analysis showed that the direct effect of social support on psychological distress was not significant, the indirect effects of social support on psychological distress were -0.019 and -0.007 through the mediating effects of psychological resilience and opportunity control. Social support indirectly influenced psychological distress through psychological resilience via opportunity control, and the indirect effect of chain mediation was -0.004. Conclusion: Psychological resilience and perceived control of opportunity play a chain mediating role between social support and psychological distress of kidney transplant recipients.

Key words: kidney transplantation; social support; psychological resilience; perceived control; psychological distress