The paper titled “Self-compassion may reduce anxiety and depression in nursing students: a pathway through perceived stress,” authored by Luo, Meng, R., Li, J., Liu, B., Cao, X., and Ge, W. (2019) and published in the Public Health journal, explores the impact of self-compassion on anxiety and depression among nursing students. The study specifically investigates how self-compassion may reduce anxiety and depression through the intermediary of perceived stress, using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to estimate the path strengths between these variables. The research was conducted with a sample of 1,453 nursing students from Ningbo, China.
The findings indicate that the nursing students experienced relatively high levels of anxiety and depression, as reflected in their average scores on the Goldberg Anxiety Scale (GAS) and the Goldberg Depression Scale (GDS), which were 4.50 ±2.44 and 3.58 ± 2.34, respectively. These levels varied significantly across different academic years, part-time work involvement, and career prospects. The average scores for self-compassion and perceived stress were 38.99 ± 4.55 and 0.40 ± 0.14, respectively.
SEM analysis revealed a negative correlation between self-compassion and both anxiety and depression (-0.44, P < 0.001), while perceived stress showed a positive correlation with anxiety and depression (0.64, P < 0.001). Additionally, self-compassion was negatively correlated with perceived stress (-0.65, P < 0.001), suggesting that self-compassion indirectly affects anxiety and depression by reducing perceived stress. The study concludes that self-compassion may play a crucial role in alleviating anxiety and depression among nursing students by reducing their perceived stress. As such, interventions aimed at increasing self-compassion could be an effective strategy for mitigating anxiety, depression, and perceived stress in this population.
Furthermore, the related paper “Perceived Social Support Promotes Nursing Students’ Psychological Wellbeing: Explained with Self-Compassion and Professional Self-Concept,” also emphasizes the importance of self-compassion, exploring its mediating role in the relationship between perceived social support and psychological well-being, alongside professional self-concept. This study also employed SEM to examine the mediating effects, finding that both self-compassion and professional self-concept independently and sequentially mediate the relationship between perceived social support and psychological well-being.
Together, these studies underscore the significance of incorporating self-compassion training into educational and health interventions for nursing students. By enhancing self-compassion, these interventions could effectively reduce anxiety, depression, and perceived stress, ultimately improving the psychological well-being of nursing students. These findings hold valuable implications for designing targeted programs to support the mental health and overall well-being of individuals in high-stress educational and professional environments.
References
Luo, Y., Meng, R., Li, J., Liu, B., Cao, X., & Ge, W. (2019). Self-compassion may reduce anxiety and depression in nursing students: a pathway through perceived stress. Public Health (London), 174, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2019.05.015
Zhou, L. et al. (2022) ‘Perceived Social Support Promotes Nursing Students’ Psychological Wellbeing: Explained With Self-Compassion and Professional Self-Concept’, Frontiers in psychology, 13, pp. 835134–835134. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.835134.
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