Negative, but Not Positive, Self-Compassion Explains Additional Variance in Academic Stress Over and Above Adversity Among Tertiary Students

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-954-4_12How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Academic stress; Adverse life events; Self-Compassion

Abstract

Mental health issues among tertiary students have become increasingly prominent, emerging as a significant public health concern. Academic stress is associated with various mental health issues. When compounded by adverse life events, it may further exacerbate the negative impact of academic stress on students, potentially increasing the risk of mental health conditions. While self-compassion is widely recognized as a protective factor for mental health, whether the differential role of its positive and negative dimensions explain additional variance in academic stress beyond the effects of life adversity remains unclear. This study examines the differential roles of positive and negative self-compassion in the associations between academic stress and adverse life events among tertiary students. Cross-sectional survey data was collected from 113 full-time tertiary students in Hong Kong. The questionnaire included sociodemographic and relevant measures included academic stress (ESSA), Self-Compassion (SCS-Y) and adverse life events (ASLEC). Hierarchical multiple regression was performed. The results indicate that neither gender nor self-rated academic performance had a potential impact on academic stress. However, adverse life event was positively correlated with academic stress (β = .406, p = .006). In the third step, regarding self-compassion, only its negative components of self-compassion was associated with lower academic stress (β = -.524, p < .001), but not the positive aspect (β = -.067, p = .637). Findings suggest that reducing the negative components of self-compassion may be more effective than fostering the positive aspects in reducing academic stress among students.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Jia Hua Pan
AU  - Siu Hei Wu
AU  - Ka Tung Cheung
AU  - Larry Auyeung
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/29
TI  - Negative, but Not Positive, Self-Compassion Explains Additional Variance in Academic Stress Over and Above Adversity Among Tertiary Students
BT  - Proceedings of the Positive Psychology 2.0 International Conference 2025 (PP 2.0 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 158
EP  - 173
SN  - 2667-128X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-954-4_12
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-954-4_12
ID  - Pan2025
ER  -