The association between self-compassion and psychological distress among Chinese college students: serial mediation via emotions and resilience resources

Jianhua Hou; Diyang Qu; He Bu; Bowen Chen; Guoxiong Liu; Nancy Xiaonan Yu

doi:10.1007/s12144-024-07227-3

The association between self-compassion and psychological distress among Chinese college students: serial mediation via emotions and resilience resources

Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences

Research output: Journal Publications and Reviews › RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal › peer-review

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Abstract

Guided by the theory of self-compassion and the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, we aimed to assess how self-compassion is related to psychological distress among Chinese college students. A convenience sample of 2,263 Chinese college students from four universities participated in this cross-sectional study. They completed measures assessing (un)compassionate self-responding, positive emotions, negative emotions, resilience resources, and psychological distress through an online survey platform. We found that positive emotions and resilience resources significantly mediated the associations between (un)compassionate self-responding and psychological distress. Future studies on mental health promotion programs based on self-compassion should evaluate whether interventions for enhancing positive emotions effectively boost resilience resources and adjustment outcomes during future pandemics. For application, university counselling centers may offer self-compassion workshops or groups to college students during transitional periods. © The Author(s) 2025

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1324–1332
Journal	Current Psychology
Volume	44
Issue number	2
Online published	6 Jan 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-07227-3
Publication status	Published - Jan 2025

Funding

Open access publishing enabled by City University of Hong Kong Library's agreement with Springer Nature. This work was supported by the Internal Funds of the City University of Hong Kong (Project No. 9680238).

Research Keywords

Positive emotions
Negative emotions
Resilience resources
Self-compassion
Psychological distress

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This full text is made available under CC-BY 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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abstract = "Guided by the theory of self-compassion and the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, we aimed to assess how self-compassion is related to psychological distress among Chinese college students. A convenience sample of 2,263 Chinese college students from four universities participated in this cross-sectional study. They completed measures assessing (un)compassionate self-responding, positive emotions, negative emotions, resilience resources, and psychological distress through an online survey platform. We found that positive emotions and resilience resources significantly mediated the associations between (un)compassionate self-responding and psychological distress. Future studies on mental health promotion programs based on self-compassion should evaluate whether interventions for enhancing positive emotions effectively boost resilience resources and adjustment outcomes during future pandemics. For application, university counselling centers may offer self-compassion workshops or groups to college students during transitional periods. {\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2025 ",

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The association between self-compassion and psychological distress among Chinese college students: serial mediation via emotions and resilience resources. / Hou, Jianhua ; Qu, Diyang ; Bu, He et al.
In: Current Psychology, Vol. 44, No. 2, 01.2025, p. 1324–1332.

Research output: Journal Publications and Reviews › RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal › peer-review

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T2 - serial mediation via emotions and resilience resources

AU - Hou, Jianhua

AU - Qu, Diyang

AU - Bu, He

AU - Chen, Bowen

AU - Liu, Guoxiong

AU - Yu, Nancy Xiaonan

PY - 2025/1

Y1 - 2025/1

N2 - Guided by the theory of self-compassion and the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, we aimed to assess how self-compassion is related to psychological distress among Chinese college students. A convenience sample of 2,263 Chinese college students from four universities participated in this cross-sectional study. They completed measures assessing (un)compassionate self-responding, positive emotions, negative emotions, resilience resources, and psychological distress through an online survey platform. We found that positive emotions and resilience resources significantly mediated the associations between (un)compassionate self-responding and psychological distress. Future studies on mental health promotion programs based on self-compassion should evaluate whether interventions for enhancing positive emotions effectively boost resilience resources and adjustment outcomes during future pandemics. For application, university counselling centers may offer self-compassion workshops or groups to college students during transitional periods. © The Author(s) 2025

AB - Guided by the theory of self-compassion and the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, we aimed to assess how self-compassion is related to psychological distress among Chinese college students. A convenience sample of 2,263 Chinese college students from four universities participated in this cross-sectional study. They completed measures assessing (un)compassionate self-responding, positive emotions, negative emotions, resilience resources, and psychological distress through an online survey platform. We found that positive emotions and resilience resources significantly mediated the associations between (un)compassionate self-responding and psychological distress. Future studies on mental health promotion programs based on self-compassion should evaluate whether interventions for enhancing positive emotions effectively boost resilience resources and adjustment outcomes during future pandemics. For application, university counselling centers may offer self-compassion workshops or groups to college students during transitional periods. © The Author(s) 2025

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The association between self-compassion and psychological distress among Chinese college students: serial mediation via emotions and resilience resources

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Research Keywords

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