Self-compassion as a mediator between parental acceptance-rejection and emotional reactivity among university students

Abstract

The aim of the current study was to explore mediating role of self-compassion in the relationship between parental acceptance-rejection and emotional reactivity in a sample of university students. The sample consisted of 428 university students, and data were collected using a personal information form, the Emotion Reactivity Scale (ERS), the Adult Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire (Adult PARQ-Short Version) and the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS). Four mediational models were used that included two dimensions of emotion reactivity (arousal/intensity and persistence) as criterion variables, maternal and paternal rejection as predictor variables, and six domains of self-compassion (self-kindness, self-judgment, common humanity, isolation, mindfulness, over-identification) as mediators. The sensitivity dimension of emotional reactivity was not included in the mediation analysis since its correlation with both maternal and paternal rejection were found to be insignificant. Mediation analyses fully supported the mediating role of self-compassion in the relationship between maternal rejection and arousal/intensity dimension as well as in the relationship between maternal rejection and persistence dimension. With regard to paternal rejection, analyses fully supported the mediating role of self-compassion in its relationship to persistence dimension. Self-compassion partially mediated the relationship between paternal rejection and the arousal/intensity dimension. The overidentification domain fully mediated this relationship, whereas the self-kindness, selfjudgment, common humanity, isolation, and mindfulness domains partially mediated. These results support the position that self-compassion fully and partially mediated the relationship between parental rejection and emotional reactivity in university students. Developing self-compassion-based intervention practices in college counseling settings may reduce or eliminate the effects of parental rejection on emotional reactivity in university students.