| Self-compassion refers to treating oneself in an understanding,accepting and non-judgmental manner when faced with stress,setbacks,failures or their own shortcomings,(Neff,2003a).With the development of positive psychology,selfcompassion as a positive and healthy attitude towards oneself has been widely concerned by researchers.Especially in adolescence,when individuals face multiple challenges and changes at the same time,self-compassion plays an important role in the healthy development of adolescents.Therefore,the protective function of selfcompassion in this period needs further research.Although there have been abundant researches on self-compassion,there are still some research gaps that need to be further explored and demonstrated.First,previous studies ignored the performance,basic characteristics,development trends,and individual heterogeneity and changes of self-compassion.Second,previous studies have paid more attention to environmental variables,such as the possible effects of parents and peers on self-compassion,which neglected the interaction between environmental variables and individual self-compassion.Third,previous studies focused on the relationship between self-compassion and mental health problems,which failed to illustrate the potential mechanism and interactions of self-compassion and mental health.Meanwhile,previous studies have found that self-warmth and selfcoldness,as sub-components of self-compassion,have different effects on mental health.However,the mechanism of self-warmth and self-coldness on mental health is still unclear,and it is difficult to illustrate the key factors and underlying mechanisms of self-compassion.Fourth,there have been many studies on how to improve and interevent self-compassion effectively.However,previous studies were mostly based on foreign clinical samples and adult sample,and there is still a lack of effective intervention studies among Chinese adolescents.In response to the above problems,this study integrates individual-centered and variable-centered research perspectives,and comprehensively describes the performance characteristics,development trends,heterogeneity and categories of adolescents' self-compassion in three years of high school through a follow-up questionnaire.Based on the ecological system theory and developmental contextual theory,the impact of environmental variables such as parenting style and friendship quality on adolescents' self-compassion performance,development trends,potential types and transition patterns was further explored.In addition,combining individualcentered and variable-centered research methods,self-compassion and its subcomponents are discussed in detail at the longitudinal level: the effects of self-warmth and self-coldness on mental health problems and subjective well-being,and the impact on potential mediating mechanisms were investigated.And on this basis,the risk profiles and transition patterns of self-compassion on mental health were analyzed,which provided research perspectives and evidence for follow-up intervention research.Finally,based on the characteristics of Chinese adolescents,the present research aims to design an effective intervention program to improve their self-compassion.The first part of this study aims to explore the developmental characteristics of adolescent self-compassion.Through a three-year follow-up questionnaire(N = 533,female 49.7%),the performance,development trend,individual heterogeneity and transition pattern of adolescent self-compassion were discussed.Study 1a,through a variable-centered approach,found that the overall self-compassion of Chinese adolescents showed a linear growth trend,and there was no significant difference between genders in the initial level and development trend of adolescent selfcompassion.Study 1b further found that there is individual heterogeneity in the selfcompassion of Chinese adolescents through an individual-centered approach,and found four latent profiles of self-compassion,with the proportions from high to low:Indifference(low scores in all dimensions),high responding(high scores on all dimensions),self-compassionate(high scores on the self-warmth,and low selfcoldness),and uncompassionate(high scores on the self-coldness,and low selfwarmth).Meanwhile,adolescents' latent transitions remained stable in high school mostly,but there were gender differences in profiles and transition patterns.The specific performance is that female adolescents are more likely to have high scores on the self-coldness expression,as well as the transition mode of increasing self-coolness level.The second part of this study aims to illustrate the environmental influencing factors of adolescent self-compassion.Study 2a based on variable-centered approach,found that the level of parental autonomy support and the quality of friendship in the first grade can predict the self-compassion performance of adolescents at three time points,and play a role in slowing down the development rate of self-compassion.Parental psychological control in the first grade of high school can negatively predict the self-compassion level of adolescents at three time points,and play an accelerated role in the development rate of their self-compassion.In addition,there was a twoway relationship between parental autonomy support and adolescent self-compassion at the longitudinal level,while parental psychological control and friendship quality could only be predicted by adolescent self-compassion,and there was no bidirectional relationship.Study 2b further explored the effect of environmental variables on adolescent self-compassion through latent profile analysis and latent transition analysis.The results suggest that parental autonomy support and friendship quality are protective factors for adolescent self-compassion,and their protective effect is achieved by increasing the probability of adolescents developing latent profiles with high levels of self-warmth and low levels of self-coldness.In terms of latent transitions,only the friendship quality can significantly reduce the probability of adolescents increased self-coldness level during the period from the first to the second grade.However,the effect of parental psychological control on adolescents' selfcompassion was twofold.Parental psychological control can significantly increase the probability of individuals with high levels of self-warmth and self-coldness in the latent profile transitions,indicating that although the risk of parental psychological control in Chinese adolescents exists,it also partially promotes individual selfcompassion.The third part of the study investigated the protective effect of self-compassion on mental health.Study 3a found that the adolescents' self-compassion can significantly predict individual subjective well-being across time,and self-warmth also plays a role in predicting adolescents' subjective well-being and mental health problems.Neither well-being nor the level of psychological problems was significantly predictive by self-coldness.Adolescents with higher levels of selfcompassion/self-warmth were less likely to experience difficulties with emotional regulation,which in turn led to lower levels of mental health problems.The same mediating role was not found for subjective well-being.The relationship between mental health and adolescent self-compassion is bidirectional,embodied in the promotion of positive mental health factors on the self-warmth,and the promotion of negative mental health factors on the self-coldness,which demonstrated that selfwarmth and self-coldness played relatively independent roles in the impact on adolescents' mental health.On this basis,Study 3b identified the risk profiles of adolescents' mental health: uncompassionate group.That is,adolescents with high levels of self-coldness and low levels of self-warmth will have the highest levels of mental health problems and the lowest levels of subjective well-being,which provides empirical evidence for follow-up targeted intervention research.In terms of latent transitions,when self-warmth remained high level,the decline in individual selfcoldness was associated with lower levels of individual mental health problems,and self-coldness was a risk factor for mental health problems in this latent profile.When self-coldness maintained at high levels,a decrease in self-warmth levels was associated with lower subjective well-being levels,suggesting that self-warmth was an important protective factor contributing to the subjective well-being.Again,from an individual-centered perspective,it verifies the relatively independent effects of self-coldness and self-warmth on mental health.The fourth part of the study is an intervention study on self-compassion.A total of 94 subjects were recruited and randomly assigned to the control group(N = 48,40 women,M age = 15.79,SD = 0.58)and experimental group(N = 46,40 women,M age = 15.80,SD = 0.45).Relying on the method of writing practice,the intervention group was required to complete a 14-day self-compassion intervention diary,while the control group was required to complete a 14-day ordinary diary.Before and after the intervention,the adolescents' self-compassion level,emotional regulation and mental health were assessed;at the same time,after completing the diary intervention,the empirical sampling method was used to conduct intensive data on the selfcompassion,emotional regulation and mental health of all participants per day.Intervention results showed that adolescents who received the intervention showed lower levels of self-coldness and mental health problems.The results of intensive data further show that the diary intervention can improve the emotional regulation ability of the individuals in the intervention group by reducing the level of self-coldness on the day,thereby improving the performance of the individuals in the intervention group on mental health problems.To sum up,this study for the first time integrates individual-centered and variable-centered research perspectives from the perspective of self-care development in the context of Chinese culture,and comprehensively describes the performance,development trend,potential categories and transformation patterns of adolescent self-care through a variety of research design and analysis methods.At the same time,the different roles played by parents and peers in the expression and development of adolescents' self-care are also deeply discussed,and the relationship between selfcompassion and adolescents' mental health is carefully and comprehensively discussed from horizontal and vertical perspectives.Finally,this research has also developed for China youth short-term intervention method itself and the localization of research on self-compassion intervention has made certain contribution,not only further enriched the adolescent self-compassion study and promoted the theoretical perspective of adolescent mental health,at the same time provides how to carry out more targeted intervention practices.It provides a new way for families,schools and society to help teenagers achieve healthy development. |
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