Self-compassion, psychological distress, and mental well-being in a predominantly young student sample: Cross-sectional associations and continuous interaction analysis

Ying Shi and Zhihui Cheng

PLOS Mental Health, 2026, vol. 3, issue 10, 1-17

Abstract: This study examined the cross-sectional associations of self-compassion and psychological distress with mental well-being in a predominantly young student sample and tested whether self-compassion modifies the association between distress and well-being. The dual-continua framework guided the simultaneous consideration of distress and positive mental health. Participants (N = 278) completed the Self-Compassion Scale–Short Form (SCS-SF), General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12), and Warwick–Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (WEMWBS). The principal analysis used mean-centred continuous predictors in hierarchical multiple regression, followed by simple-slopes and Johnson–Neyman analyses. Heteroscedasticity-consistent standard errors and sensitivity analyses were used to examine robustness. Secondary analyses comprised a median-split ANOVA examining categorical main and interaction effects and stratified Spearman correlations estimating the self-compassion–well-being association within distress groups. Higher self-compassion was associated with greater well-being, B = 0.230, 95% CI [0.126, 0.334], p

Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pmen00:0000653

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmen.0000653

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