Auto-compaixão, depressão e stress em estudantes universitários

Abstract

Self-compassion, understood as a strategy for effective and adaptive emotional regulation to deal with thoughts, unwanted or unpleasant feelings, and negative and painful life events, has been associated with emotional and psychological well-being. Depression and stress are clearly distinct from a phenomenological standpoint, but, empirically, it has been difficult to separate the two constructs.
Previous studies suggest that self-compassion and depressive symptoms are consistently associated in a negative way, although it is frequently assumed that low self-compassion precedes depressive symptoms.
Given the lack of studies exploring the relationship between these two constructs, the main purpose of this study is to analyse the predictive role of self-compassion on the depressive symptomatology and stress in a sample of college students.
The sample was composed of 246 students, of which 69 were male and 176 were female, with mean age of 21.72, and who filled in the Self-compassion Scales and the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scales.
Even though depression is perceived as being correlated with self-criticism, isolation, overidentification and total self-compassion, only isolation is proven to be a significant predictor of depression. Concerning stress, it we found significant correlations with self-criticism, the human condition, isolation, over-identification and total self-compassion, of which only over-identification is not
a predictor of stress. Our results, although preliminary, support the notion that the fostering of selfcompassion might deserve some emphasis in programs for the prevention of depression.

Date of Award	1 Mar 2017
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Berta Rodrigues Maia (Supervisor)