ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Adolescent and Young Adult Psychiatry
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1613442
This article is part of the Research TopicAdolescent Emotional Disorders and Suicide Self-Harm Crisis InterventionView all 27 articles
Mindfulness, perceived social support, and suicidal ideation among Chinese adolescents: The mediating role of self-compassion
Provisionally accepted
- Zhongshan Mental Health Center, The Third People's Hospital of Zhongshan, Zhongshan, China
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Objective: Previous studies have demonstrated that mindfulness and perceived social support are protective factors against suicide. However, the potential common mechanisms underlying these relationships remain unclear. This study aimed to examine the associations between mindfulness, perceived social support, and suicidal ideation, and to explore the mediating role of self-compassion in these relationships among a sample of adolescents in China. Methods: A total of 1709 adolescents (M_age= 15.06, SD_age= 1.51) were recruited from one junior high school and one senior high school in Zhongshan, China. Mindfulness, perceived social support, suicidal ideation and self-compassion were assessed using self-report questionnaires. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to estimate the relationships between the variables. Results: Mindfulness and perceived social support were both positively associated with self-compassion, which in turn was negatively associated with suicidal ideation. Moreover, self-compassion partially mediated the relationship between mindfulness and suicidal ideation (indirect effect = -0.12, 95% confidence interval [CI] [-0.15, -0.08]), as well as the relationship between perceived social support and suicidal ideation (indirect effect = -0.08, 95% CI [-0.11, -0.06]). Conclusions: Mindfulness and perceived social support were associated with lower levels of suicidal ideation, and these associations were partially explained by self-compassion, suggesting that self-compassion may act as a shared mediator. Interventions that strengthen mindfulness, perceived social support, and self-compassion—such as mindfulness-based supportive group interventions or compassion-focused therapy—may be particularly beneficial for adolescents experiencing suicidal ideation.
Keywords: mindfulness, perceived social support, self-compassion, Suicidal Ideation, adolescents
Received: 17 Apr 2025; Accepted: 28 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Ren, Zeng, Rong, Ren, Jiang and Fang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Tingyun Jiang, Zhongshan Mental Health Center, The Third People's Hospital of Zhongshan, Zhongshan, China
Yuan Fang, Zhongshan Mental Health Center, The Third People's Hospital of Zhongshan, Zhongshan, China
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