Self‐Compassion, Stress, and Coping
Open accessAbstract
People who are high in self‐compassion treat themselves with kindness and concern when they experience negative events. The present article examines the construct of self‐compassion from the standpoint of research on coping in an effort to understand the ways in which people who are high in self‐compassion cope with stressful events. Self‐compassionate people tend to rely heavily on positive cognitive restructuring and less so on avoidance and escape but do not appear to differ from less self‐compassionate people in the degree to which they cope through problem‐solving or distraction. Existing evidence does not show clear differences in the degree to which people who are low versus high in self‐compassion seek support as a coping strategy, but more research is needed.
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Self-compassion has been suggested to buffer against mental health problems under the experience of negative life events.
“Self-compassion has also been suggested to buffer against mental health problems under the experience of negative life events. 32”
From Academic stress, mindfulness-related skills and mental health in international university students. (2024) · cites this paper as [32]
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- Authors
- Allen, A. B., & Leary, M. R.
- Affiliations
- Duke University (US)
- Venue
- Social and Personality Psychology Compass
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2010-02
- Volume
- 4
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 107-118
- ISSN
- 1751-9004 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC2914331
- OpenAlex
- W2116195752
- Cited by
- 757
- References
- 16
- Citations by year
- 2026: 55 · 2025: 68 · 2024: 80 · 2023: 94 · 2022: 73 · 2021: 72 · 2020: 73 · 2019: 58 · 2018: 47 · 2017: 34 · 2016: 29 · 2015: 25 · 2014: 20 · 2013: 16 · 2012: 7
- FWCI
- 9.86
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Social and Personality Psychology Compass (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute on Aging (F31AG034716)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Student Stress and Coping
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction
- Keywords
- self-compassion, stress, coping strategies, cognitive restructuring, problem solving, distraction, social support seeking
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