Self-compassion as a protective factor for depression, anxiety and stress: a research on Turkish university students

Abstract

The empirical study aims to examine the predictive power of self-compassion on depression, anxiety and stress on Turkish sample. The study was designed in correlative investigation model. A total number of 522 university students (360 female, 162 male) participated in the study. The data were obtained using the Self-compassion Scale (SCS- Neff, 2003; Deniz, Kesici, & Sümer, 2008) and Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale(DASSLovibond & Lovibond, 1995; Akın, & Çetin, 2007). Correlation analysis indicated that self-compassion scores were negatively correlated with depression, anxiety and stress scores. Moreover, as a result of the regression analysis, it was found that self- compassion scores explained 18% of total variance in depression scores, 14% of total variance in anxiety scores, and 21% of total variance in stress scores. According to these results, it was concluded that self-compassion plays a role as predictive factor of depression, anxiety and stress in Turkish study sample. The results are discussed in the light of the related literature.