The interplay between emotional well-being, self-compassion, and basic psychological needs in adolescents

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic affected the mental health of people, especially adolescents. Although the negative impact of the pandemic has been described, studies on the role of protective factors in this population remain scarce. Using a mediation model approach, we examined the relationship between emotional well-being, self-compassion, and basic psychological needs in adolescents at school during the pandemic. Adolescents attending schools in northern Portugal (1092; 511 boys and 581 girls; aged 12 to 18 years) completed the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, the Self-Compassion Scale – Youth Version, and the Adolescents’ Basic Psychological Needs at School Scale. Boys reported higher positive affect, emotional well-being, and self-compassion than girls. A significant positive association between adolescents’ self-compassion and satisfaction of basic psychological needs at school was mediated by emotional well-being. The findings highlight the protective role of emotional well-being, self-compassion, and basic psychological needs during challenging times, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

KEYWORDS:

• Adolescence
• emotional well-being
• self-compassion
• basic psychological needs
• COVID-19

Acknowledgments

We thank all schools, teachers, families, and adolescents for their collaboration in this study. The authors acknowledge the Psychology for Development Research Center, Lusíada University (Porto), where this work was conducted. We acknowledge FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia grant number [PTDC/CED-EDG/31615/2017] for the support in data collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Authors’ contributions

SC and MS conceived the study and participated in its design and coordination. SC wrote the original draft, reviewed, and edited the manuscript. MS reviewed and edited the manuscript. MMP performed the statistical analysis and reviewed and edited the manuscript. AM, SM and SF participated in the interpretation of the data and reviewed and edited the manuscript. PM participated in its design and coordination and reviewed and edited the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Data availability statement

Data supporting the findings are available upon request to the corresponding author. The data is not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was support by FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, I.P. by project reference [UIDB/04375/2020] and DOI identifier [https://doi.org/10.54499/UIDB/04375/2020].