Distress,Social Support,and Self-Compassion: Relationships With Mental Health Among College Students

Abstract

This study investigated how distress, conceptualized as an interaction between hassles and stress perceptions, related to mental health, whether the type of distress (social or nonsocial) was consequential, and whether perceived support and self-compassion attenuated these relationships. Students (N = 185) from a mid-sized university in the southeast completed a survey. Survey questions pertained to hassles and stress perceptions, mental health (i.e., anxiety, depression, happiness, and love of life), perceived social support, and self-compassion. As predicted, students reporting more hassles and stress (both social and nonsocial) as well as those reporting less support and self-compassion, were worse off regarding mental illness and mental wellness. This was observed for both social and nonsocial distress. Although we did not support our hypotheses regarding buffering effects, we found perceived support and self-compassion are beneficial, regardless of hassles and stress levels. We discuss implications for students’ mental health and ideas for future research.

Keywords

hassles stress social support self-compassion mental health

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Abdel-Khalek

A. M.

(2007). Love of life as a new construct in the well-being domain. Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 35(1), 125–134. https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2007.35.1.125

Abdel-Khalek

A. M.

Lester

(2011). Love of life in Kuwaiti and American college students. Psychological Reports, 108(1), 94. https://doi.org/10.2466/07.17.PR0.108.1.94

Abrams

(2022). Student mental health is in crisis: Campuses are rethinking their approach. American Psychological Association Monitor on Psychology, 53(7). https://www.apa.org/monitor/2022/10/mental-health-campus-care.

American College Health Association . (2018). American College Health Association-National. College Health Assessment II: Reference group executive summary Spring 2018. Silver spring, MD: American College Health Association. Available: https://www.acha.org/documents/ncha/NCHA-II_Spring_2018_Reference_Group_Executive_Summary.pdf

Asselmann

Wittchen

H. U.

Lieb

Höfler

Beesdo-Baum

(2015). Danger and loss events and the incidence of anxiety and depressive disorders: A prospective-longitudinal community study of adolescents and young adults. Psychological Medicine, 45(1), 153–163. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291714001160

Barker

D. B.

(2011). Self-selection for stressful experiences. Stress and Health: Journal of the International Society for the Investigation of Stress, 27(3), 194–205. https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.1325

Barnes

L. L. B.

Harp

Jung

W. S.

(2002). Reliability generalization of scores on the Spielberger state-trait anxiety inventory. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 62(4), 603–618. https://doi.org/10.1177/001316440206200400=5

Blanco

Okuda

Wright

Hasin

D. S.

Grant

B. F.

Liu

S.-M.

Olfson

(2008). Mental health of college students and their non-college-attending peers: Results from the national epidemiologic study on alcohol and related conditions. Archives of General Psychiatry, 65(12), 1429–1437. https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.65.12.1429

Bluth

Eisenlohr-Moul

T. A.

(2017). Response to a mindful self-compassion intervention in teens: A within-person association of mindfulness, self-compassion, and emotional well-being outcomes. Journal of Adolescence, 57, 108–118. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2017.04.001

10.

Bouteyre

Maurel

Bernaud

J.-L.

(2007). Daily hassles and depressive a symptoms among first year psychology students in France: The role of coping and social support. Stress and Health: Journal of the International Society for the Investigation of Stress, 23(2), 93–99. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1002/smi.1125.

11.

Brand

E. F.

Lakey

Berman

(1995). A preventive, psychoeducational approach to increase perceived social support. American Journal of Community Psychology, 23(1), 117–135. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02506925

12.

Brannan

Biswas-Diener

Mohr

C. D.

Mortazavi

Stein

(2013). Friends and family: A cross-cultural investigation of social support and subjective well-being among college students. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 8(1), 65–75. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2012.743573

13.

Cassidy

McLaughlin

Giles

(2014). Benefit finding in response to general life stress: Measurement and correlates. Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine, 2(1), 268–282. https://doi.org/10.1080/21642850.2014.889570

14.

Chamberlain

Zika

(1990). The minor events approach to stress: Support for the use of daily hassles. British Journal of Psychology, 81(Pt 4), 469–481. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8295.1990.tb02373.x

15.

Chang

E. C.

Najarian

A. S.-M.

Wright

K. M.

Chen

Chang

O. D.

Hirsch

J. K.

(2017). Understanding the association between negative life events and suicidal risk in college students: Examining self‐compassion as a potential mediator. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 73(6), 745–755. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.22374

16.

Chen

R. C.-L.

(2012). Managing perceived stress among college students: The roles of social support and dysfunctional coping. Journal of College Counseling, 15(1), 5–21. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-1882.2012.00002.x

17.

Coburn

S. S.

Gonzales

N. A.

Luecken

L. J.

Crnic

K. A.

(2016). Multiple domains of stress predict postpartum depressive symptoms in low-income Mexican American women: The moderating effect of social support. Archives of Women’s Mental Health, 19(6), 1009–1018. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-016-0649-x

18.

Cohen

(1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. Routledge.

19.

Cohen

Williamson

(1988) Perceived stress in a probability sample of the United States. In Spacapan

Oskamp

(Eds.), The social psychology of health. Sage.

20.

Cohen

Wills

T. A.

(1985). Stress, social support, and the buffering hypothesis. Psychological Bulletin, 98(2), 310–357.

21.

Coiro

M. J.

Bettis

A. H.

Compas

B. E.

(2017). College students coping with interpersonal stress: Examining a control-based model of coping. Journal of American College Health, 65(3), 177–186. https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2016.1266641

22.

Cole

J. C.

Rabin

A. S.

Smith

T. L.

Kaufman

A. S.

(2004). Development and validation of a Rasch-Derived CES-D short form. Psychological Assessment, 16(4), 360–372. https://doi.org/10.1037/1040-3590.16.4.360

23.

Compas

B. E.

Lesley

Slavin

L. A.

Wagner

B. M.

Vannatta

(1986). Relationship of life events and social support with psychological dysfunction among adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 15(3),205–221, https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02139123

24.

Coyne

J. C.

(1994). Self-reported distress: Analog or ersatz depression? Psychological Bulletin, 116(1), 29–45. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.116.1.29

25.

Cutrona

C. E.

Russell

(1987). The provisions of social relationships and adaptation to stress In Jones

W. H.

Perlman

(Eds.), Advances in personal relationships (Vol.1. pp. 37–67). JAI Press.

26.

Cutrona

C. E.

Russell

D. W.

(1990).Type of social support and specific stress: Toward a theory of optimal matching. In Sarason

B. R.

Sarason

I. G.

Pierce

G. R.

(Eds.), Wiley series on personality processes. Social support: An interactional view (p. 319–366). John Wiley & Sons.

27.

DeLongis

Folkman

Lazarus

R. S.

(1988). The impact of daily stress on health and mood: Psychological and social resources as mediators. Journal of Personality and Social, 54(3), 486–495. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.54.3.486

28.

Dolbier

C. L.

Steinhardt

M. A.

(2000). The development and validation of the sense of support scale. Behavioral Medicine, 25(4), 169–179. https://doi.org/10.1080/08964280009595746

29.

Frazier

P. A.

Tix

A. P.

Barron

K. E.

(2004). Testing moderator and mediator effects in counseling psychology research. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 51(1), 115–134. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.51.1.115

30.

Frostadottir

A. D.

Dorjee

(2019). Effects of Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) and Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) on symptom change, mindfulness, self-compassion, and rumination in clients with depression, anxiety, and stress. Frontiers in Psychology, 10. https://doio.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01099

31.

Gallagher

(2014). National survey of college counseling centers. The International Association of Counseling Services IACS [Online], Project report 2015. Available at: http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/28178/ Accessed August 23, 2017.

32.

Harkness

K. L.

Washburn

(2016). Stress generation. In Fink

(Ed.), Stress: Concepts, cognition, emotion, and behavior. (Vol. 1, pp. 331–338). Elsevier Academic Press.

33.

Hayes

J. A.

Lockard

A. J.

Janis

R. A.

Locke

B. D.

(2016). Construct validity of the Self-Compassion Scale-Short Form among psychotherapy clients. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 29(4), 405–422. https://doi.org/10.1080/09515070.2016.1138397

34.

Hirsch

J. K.

Hall

B. B.

Wise

H. A.

Brooks

B. D.

Chang

E. C.

Sirois

F. M.

(2019). Negative life events and suicide risk in college students: Conditional indirect effects of hopelessness and self-compassion. Journal of American College Health, 69(5), 546–553. https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2019.1692023

35.

Holmes

T. H.

Rahe

R. H.

(1967). The social Readjustment rating scale. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 11(2), 213–218. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-3999(67)90010-4

36.

Hood

C.O.

Ross

L.T.

Wills

N.L.

(2019). Family factors and depressive symptoms among college students: Understanding the role of self-compassion. Journal of American College Health, 68(7), 683–687. https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2019.1596920

37.

IBM . (2018). Statistical package for the social sciences, version 24. IBM.

38.

Jackson

P. B.

Finney

(2002). Negative life events and psychological distress among young adults. Social Psychology Quarterly, 65(2), 186–201. https://doi.org/10.2307/3090100

39.

Jenkins

S. R.

Belanger

Connally

M. L.

Boals

Durón

K. M.

(2013). First-generation undergraduate students’ social support, depression, and life satisfaction. Journal of College Counseling, 16(2), 129–142. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-1882.2013.00032.x

40.

Kanner

A. D.

Coyne

J. C.

Schaefer

Lazarus

R. S.

(1981). Comparison of two modes of stress measurement: Daily hassles and uplifts versus major life events. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 4(1), 1–39. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00844845

41.

Kendler

K. S.

Karkowski

L. M.

Prescott

C. A.

(1999). Causal relationship between stressful life events and the onset of major depression. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 156(6), 837–841. https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.156.6.837

42.

Keyes

C. L. M.

Eisenberg

Perry

G. S.

Dube

S. R.

Kroenke

Dhingra

S. S.

(2012). The relationship of level of positive mental health with current mental disorders in predicting suicidal behavior and academic impairment in college students. Journal of American College Health, 60(2), 126–133. https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2011.608393

43.

Kohn

P.M.

LaFreniere

Gurevich

(1990).The inventory of college students recent life experiences: A decontaminated hassles scale for a special population. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 13(6), 619–630. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00844738

44.

Kopala-Sibley

D. C.

Santor

D. A.

(2009). The mediating role of automatic thoughts in the personality-event-affect relationship. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 38(3), 153–161. https://doi.org/10.1080/16506070802694644

45.

Kroshus

Hawrilenko

Browning

(2021). Stress, self-compassion, and well-being during the transition to college. Social Science and Medicine, 269, 1113514. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113514

46.

Lakey

(2013). Perceived social support and happiness: The role of personality and relational processes. In David

S. A.

Boniwell

Conley Ayers

(Eds.), The Oxford handbook of happiness. (pp. 847–859). Oxford University Press. http://search.ebscohost.com.nuncio.cofc.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=psyh&AN=2013-08793-062&site=ehost-live&scope=site

47.

Lakey

Cassady

P. B.

(1990). Cognitive processes in perceived social support. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59(2), 337–343. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.59.2.337

48.

Lakey

Tardiff

T. A.

Drew

J. B.

(1994). Negative social interactions: Assessment and relations to social support, cognition, and psychological distress. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 13(1), 42–62. https://doi.org/10.1521/jscp.1994.13.1.42

49.

Lipson

S. K.

Zhou

Abelson

Heinze

Jirsa

Morigney

Patterson

Singh

Eisenberg

(2022). Trends in college student mental health and help-seeking by race/ethnicity: Findings from the national Healthy Minds Study, 2013–2021. Journal of Affective Disorders, 306, 138–147. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165032722002774

50.

Lyubomirsky

Lepper

H. S.

(1999). A measure of subjective happiness: Preliminary reliability and construct validation. Social Indicators Research, 46(2), 137–155. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006824100041

51.

MacBeth

Gumley

(2012). Exploring compassion: A meta-analysis of the association between self-compassion and psychopathology. Clinical Psychology Review, 32(6), 545–552. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2012.06.003

52.

Maybery

D. J.

Graham

(2001). Hassles and uplifts: Including interpersonal events. Stress and Health: Journal of the International Society for the Investigation of Stress, 17(2), 91–104. https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.891

53.

McCarthy

C. J.

Fouladi

R. T.

Juncker

B. D.

Matheny

K. B.

(2006). Psychological resources as stress buffers: Their relationship to university students’ anxiety and depression. Journal of College Counseling, 9(2), 99–110. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-1882.2006.tb00097.x

54.

McGonigal

(2015). The upside of stress: Why stress is good for you, and how to get good at it. Avery.

55.

Miloseva

Vukosavljevic-Gvozden

Richter

Milosev

Niklewski

(2017). Perceived social support as a moderator between negative life events and depression in adolescence: Implications for prediction and targeted prevention. EPMA Journal, 8(3), 237–245. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13167-017-0095-5

56.

Muris

Petrocchi

(2017). Protection or vulnerability? A meta-analysis of the relations between the positive and negative components of self-compassion and psychopathology. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 24(2), 373–383. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/cpp.2005

57.

Muris

van den Broek

Otgaar

Oudenhoven

Lennartz

(2018). Good and bad sides of self-compassion: A face validity check of the self-compassion scale and an investigation of its relations to coping and emotional symptoms in non-clinical adolescents. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 27(8), 2411–2421. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-018-1099-z

58.

Neff

Davidson

(2016). Self-compassion: Embracing suffering with kindness. In Ivtzan

Lomas

(Eds.), Mindfulness in positive psychology: The science of meditation and wellbeing. (pp. 37–50). Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.

59.

Neff

K. D.

(2003). Development and validation of a scale to measure self-compassion. Self and Identity, 2(3), 223–250. https://doi.org/10.1080/15298860390209035

60.

Neff

K. D.

(2011). Self-compassion, self-esteem, and well-being. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 5(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2010.00330.x

61.

Neff

K. D.

Tóth

K. I.

Colosimo

(2018). Self-compassion is best measured as a global construct and is overlapping with but distinct from neuroticism: A response to pfattheicher, geiger, hartung, Weiss, and Schindler (2017). European Journal of Personality, 32(4), 371–392. https://doi.org/10.1002/per.2148

62.

Neff

K. D.

Vonk

(2009). Self-compassion versus global self-esteem: Two different ways of relating to oneself. Journal of Personality, 77(1), 23–50. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2008.00537.x

63.

Noone

P. A.

(2017). The holmes–Rahe stress inventory. Occupational Medicine, 67(7), 581– 582. https://doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqx099

64.

Radloff

L. S.

(1977). The CES-D scale: A self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement, 1(3), 385–401. https://doi.org/10.1177/014662167700100306

65.

Raes

Pommier

Neff

K. D.

Van Gucht

(2011). Construction and factorial validation of a short form of the Self-compassion Scale. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 18(3), 250–255. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpp.702

66.

Rankin

J. A.

Paisley

C. A.

Mulla

M. M.

Tomeny

T. S.

(2018). Unmet social support needs among college students: Relations between social support discrepancy and depressive and anxiety symptoms. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 65(4), 474–489. https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000269

67.

Roberti

J. W.

Harrington

L. N.

Storch

E. A.

(2006). Further psychometric support for the 10- item version of the Perceived Stress Scale. Journal of College Counselling, 9(2), 135–147. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-1882.2006.tb00100.x

68.

Ross

L. T.

Lutz

Lakey

(1999). Perceived social support and attributions for failed support. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25(7), 896–908. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167299025007011

69.

Ross

T Owensby

Kolak

M . (2022). Family predictability and psychological wellness: Do personal predictability and control beliefs matter? Journal of Child and Family Studies, August. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-022-02383-1

70.

Sarason

I. G.

Johnson

J. H.

Siegel

J. M.

(1978). Assessing the impact of life changes: Development of the life experiences survey. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 46(5), 932–946. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-006x.46.5.932

71.

Shi

, (2021). Perceived social support as a moderator of depression and stress in college students. Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 49(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.3171/2021.10.SPINE21768

72.

Smeets

Neff

Alberts

Peters

(2014). Meeting suffering with kindness: Effects of a brief self-compassion intervention for female college students. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 70(9), 794–807. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.22076

73.

Spielberger

C. D.

(1983). Manual for the state-trait anxiety inventory (STAI). Consulting Psychologists Press.

74.

Stallman

H. M.

Ohan

J. L.

Chiera

(2018). The role of social support, being present, and self‐kindness in university student psychological distress. Australian Psychologist, 53(1), 52–59. https://doi.org/10.1111/ap.12271

75.

Stutts

L. A.

Leary

M. R.

Zeveney

A. S.

Hufnagle

A. S.

(2018). A longitudinal analysis of the relationship between self-compassion and the psychological effects of perceived stress. Self and Identity, 17(6), 609–626. https://doi.org/10.1080/15298868.2017.1422537

76.

Swift

Wright

M. O.

(2002). Does social support buffer stress for college women: When and how? Journal of College Student Psychotherapy, 14(4), 23–42. https://doi.org/10.1300/J035v14n04_05

77.

von Weiss

R. T.

Rapoff

M. A.

Varni

J. W.

Lindsley

C. B.

Olson

N. Y.

Madson

K. L.

Bernstein

B. H.

(2002). Daily hassles and social support as predictors of adjustment in children with pediatric rheumatic disease. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 27(2), 155–165. https://doi.org/10.1093/jpepsy/27.2.155

78.

Vungkhanching

Tonsing

J. C.

Tonsing

K. N.

(2017). Psychological distress, coping and perceived social support in social work students. British Journal of Social Work, 47(7), 1999–2013. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcw145

79.

Walters

K. S.

Bulmer

S. M.

Troiano

P. F.

Obiaka

Bonhomme

(2018). Substance use, anxiety, and depressive symptoms among college students. Journal of Child & Adolescent Substance Abuse, 27(2), 103–111. https://doi.org/10.1080/1067828X.2017.1420507

80.

Wang

Hegde

Son

Keller

Smith

Sasangohar

(2020). Investigating mental health of US college students during the COVID-19 pandemic: Cross- sectional survey study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 22(9), Article e22817. https://doi.org/10.2196/22817

81.

Werner

K. H.

Jazaieri

Goldin

P. R.

Ziv

Heimberg

R. G.

Gross

J. J.

(2012). Self- compassion and social anxiety disorder. Anxiety, Stress & Coping, 25(5), 543–558. https://doi.org/10.1080/10615806.2011.608842

82.

Wilks

S. E.

. (2008). Resilience amid academic stress: The moderating impact of social support among social work students. Advances in Social Work, 9(2), 106–125. https://doi.org/10.18060/51