The Role Of Perceived Stress Between Self-compassion And Psychological Adjustment

Self-compassion,refers to a relatively new self-concept of having a caring and non-critical attitude toward oneself when faced with difficulties and challenges,and understanding that adversities are common to all humans,over the last few decades.A great amount of research has demonstrated that self-compassion is beneficial for psychological adjustment,however,few study has investigated the mechanism underlying this relationship.In this study,we proposed and examined that reducing perceived stress might be one of the potential indirect effect pathways.Besides,the positive effects of self-compassion on psychological adjustment were mostly found by subjective report data,whether it can also play a positive role at the objective physiological level is still less studied.We conducted two studies including four sub-experiments to address the research questions mentioned above.The current study used subjective indicators and objective indicators to investigate the impact of self-compassion on the individuals' psychological adjustment and the mechanism of perceived stress underlying this relationship.In study 1,two sub-experiments were carried out to explore whether perceived stress is the mechanism between self-compassion and subjective level of psychological adjustment.In this study,psychopathological symptoms of depression and anxiety were selected as indicators of psychological adjustment.Using a cross-sectional survey method,study 1A found the mediating role of perceived stress between self-compassion and depression and anxiety,respectively.Using an intensive longitudinal method,study 1B aims at exploring the impact of self-compassion on psychological adjustment and the mechanism of perceived stress underlying this relationship.Result found that in the face of daily stressors,self-compassion could not have an indirect positive effect on psychological adjustment through overall perceived stress.However,self-compassion directly negatively predicted the individual's depression and anxiety level after the occurrence of daily stressors.In addition,people with higher levels of self-compassion experienced less stress during daily stress events,resulting in fewer psychological symptoms of depression and anxiety.In study 2,two sub-experiments were carried out to reexamine the mechanism mentioned above by using subjective indicators and objective indicators.In this study,subjective units of distress was selected as the subjective indicator,heart rate and heart rate variability were selected as objective indicators.Study 2A aims at exploring the impact of self-compassion on psychological adjustment and the mechanism of perceived stress underlying this relationship during rest state.Results indicated that self-compassion had positive associations with subjective distress,heart rate and heart rate variability,indirectly through perceived stress.Study 2A aims at exploring the impact of self-compassion on psychological adjustment and the mechanism of perceived stress underlying this relationship in the face of an acute stress task.Results indicated that,undergoing a stressor and after acute stress,self-compassion directly predicted the subjective distress,and via perceived stress,it indirectly predicted heart rate and heart rate variability,respectively.Using subjective indicators and objective indicators,the current study conducted two studies including four sub-experiments to investigate the impact of self-compassion on the individuals' psychological adjustment and the mechanism of perceived stress underlying this relationship among Chinese university students.Our findings contribute to broadening the understanding of theories of self-compassion in the field of health psychology.Apart from this,the current research also provides a new perspective for the development and improvement of self-compassion intervention programs in the future.