Can self-compassion help students cope with eegret? A mediation analysis on mental health

Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Negeri Surabaya, Indonesia

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Abstract

Regret is a common emotional experience that is frequently linked to worse mental health. However, individuals vary in how they cope with regret, and self-compassion may serve as a protective factor. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether self-compassion mediates the association between mental health and regret. We hypothesized that lower self-compassion, which is linked to worse mental health, would be predicted by higher levels of regret. Standardized self-report measures of regret, self-compassion, and mental health were completed by 216 university students. According to mediator analysis, regret was significantly linked to self-compassion (p=0,0317), self-compassion significantly linked to mental health (p=0,000). Direct effect of mental regret and mental health also significantly linked (p=0,0186). Total effect size (p=0,0016) indicated that before self-compassion included, the linked between regret and mental health was stronger. Although there is a statistically significant indirect effect of 0.1432, the bootstrapping results with a 95% confidence interval (0.0156–0.2779) include the value zero. This means that the mediating effect of self-compassion is not significant. Overall, these findings suggest that interventions aimed at enhancing self-compassion may help students cope more adaptively with regret and protect their mental health.