ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Personality and Social Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1510987
This article is part of the Research TopicPersonal Competences in the Academic and Work Environment: Advancing Towards Psychological WellbeingView all 10 articles
A mixed Methods Exploration of the Interrelationships Among Self-Compassion, Stress Management, Psychological Capital, and Life Satisfaction in Chinese University Students
Provisionally accepted
- 1Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, China
- 2Wenzhou Institute of Technology, Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, China
- 3First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
This study explores the interrelationships between self-compassion, stress management, psychological capital (PsyCap), and life satisfaction among Chinese university students using a mixed-methods approach. A total of 478 students from six universities participated in the quantitative phase, while a subsample of 30 participants took part in semi-structured interviews for the qualitative phase. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was employed to test the hypothesized direct and indirect relationships among the variables. Results revealed that selfcompassion and stress management positively influenced life satisfaction both directly and indirectly through PsyCap, which served as a key mediator. Psychological capital, encompassing resilience, optimism, and self-efficacy, was strongly associated with higher life satisfaction.Additionally, multi-group SEM analyses showed no significant gender differences in the 2 relationships among the variables. The qualitative findings provided further insights into students' experiences, highlighting the challenges of balancing self-compassion with cultural and academic pressures, and the role of PsyCap as a protective factor. This research emphasizes the importance of promoting self-compassion, adaptive stress management strategies, and psychological capital to enhance students' well-being in high-stress academic environments.
Keywords: self-compassion, stress management, Psychological Capital, life satisfaction, mixed-methods, Structural Equation Modeling, emotional resilience
Received: 14 Oct 2024; Accepted: 02 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Huang, Lin, Wang and Du. 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: Zhou Du, First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.