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

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), adolescence refers to the period between the ages of 12 and 20. This period is characterized by significant physical, sexual, and psychological changes and is a critical phase of social and emotional development (Ross et al., 2019). Adolescence represents a period of increased risk to health and can compromise the successful resolution of developmental tasks (Axelson & Birmaher, 2001). Developmental problems may result from the interaction of psychological states, traits, and exposure to environmental stressors (Monroe & Cummins, 2015).

A key concern is whether adolescents’ development has been threatened by the life changes imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated public health measures. Lockdowns and social confinement were two of the main containment measures adopted by governments to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2. These were particularly difficult for adolescents, as the lack of contact with peers and the school environment led to feelings of social isolation (Loades et al., 2021) and affected their mental health (Ellis et al., 2020). Although the impact of the pandemic and public health measures has been widely addressed (see Figueiredo et al., 2021), the psychological competence of adolescents to cope with such events is still understudied. Evidence suggests a link between processes, such as emotional well-being or self-compassion, and the socioemotional adjustment of adolescents, which may be protective against mental health problems (Kotera et al., 2021) and enable adaptive outcomes (Barry et al., 2017) during difficult times.

Emotional well-being refers to an individual’s affective experience, which depends on the balance between positive and negative affect (Galinha et al., 2014). High positive affect refers to the experience of positive emotions, such as enthusiasm, inspiration, and determination, which reflect pleasure and subjective well-being; whereas high negative affect refers to the experience of negative emotions, such as anxiety, nervousness, and anger, which reflect unhappiness and ill-being (Galinha et al., 2014). Emotional states are associated with several indicators of adolescents’ developmental outcomes. Higher levels of emotional well-being are associated with resilience (Sagone & De Caroli, 2014), positive coping skills (Zammuner, 2019), lower depressive and anxiety states (Bjørnsen et al., 2019), and lower disruptive behaviours (e.g. aggression, Hussong et al., 2017). Emotional well-being has an important relationship with self-compassion, in the sense that self-compassion can enhance well-being in challenging situations, such that emotional well-being functions as a mediating dimension between self-compassion and functioning outcomes (Tran et al., 2022). Adolescents’ self-compassion may then act as a buffer against adversity, as it is associated with increased emotional well-being, which contributes to social and emotional adjustment to changing contexts (Beshai et al., 2018).

Self-compassion is a modifiable trait (Bluth et al., 2016; Galla, 2016; Sun et al., 2016) that reflects an adaptive self-attitude and protective factor that facilitates an individual’s adjustment to difficult life situations (Neff & McGehee, 2010). According to Neff (2003a), compassion ‘involves being open to and moved by the suffering of others, so that one desires to ease their suffering’ (p. 224). Self-compassion implies that every human being, including oneself, is worthy of compassion, while acknowledging the suffering and failure strongly connected to human life (Neff, 2003a). It refers to the common humanity, the subjective awareness of and sympathy towards failures and distress (self-kindness) and a balanced and nonjudgmental approach (mindfulness) to situations during times that are perceived as difficult and stressful (Neff, 2003b, 2009).

Conceptually related constructs, self-compassion and emotional well-being are important dimensions related to social and emotional development in adolescents (Bluth et al., 2016; Neff & McGehee, 2010). Adolescents who are more self-compassionate have less negative affect, anxiety, stress, rumination, or depressive states, and conversely, greater feelings of positive affect, life satisfaction, and social connectedness (Galla, 2016; Neff & McGehee, 2010). Adolescents’ feelings of isolation and disconnection from others are strongly associated with increased negative affect, whereas feelings of connection, through shared experiences, are associated with higher levels of positive affect (Bluth & Blanton, 2015). Self-compassion, which is associated with emotional well-being, promotes positive outcomes for adolescents by facilitating adjustment when the context changes (Beshai et al., 2018).

Environmental stressors can endanger emotional well-being, as increased levels of stress are associated with poorer emotional well-being (Labrague, 2021), and thus may compromise adolescents’ social and emotional development. The COVID-19 pandemic can be considered a traumatic and real-life adversity that posed a major challenge to adolescents’ mental health and may have influenced their developmental outcomes (Caffo et al., 2020). Public health measures – such as social distancing – had a serious impact on adolescents’ emotional and social development (Figueiredo et al., 2021) and can therefore be considered a life adversity (Loades et al., 2021; Smith & Pollak, 2021). Adolescents experienced drastic changes in their daily routines, such as the closure of schools, lack of outdoors activities, lack of physical interaction with peers, or uncertainties about the future (The Lancet Child Adolescent Health, 2020). More generally, social distancing has been shown to be linked to more emotional (e.g. boredom or irritability) and behavioural distress (e.g. restlessness) (Orgilés et al., 2020) and feelings of loneliness (Cooper et al., 2021).

During the COVID-19 outbreak, policymakers decided to close schools and universities worldwide, leaving thousands of children, adolescents, and college students with the need to home school. COVID-19 was declared a public health emergency of international concern by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2020. To control the spread of the disease, governments around the world ordered lockdowns, confinement, social distancing, and the wearing of face masks as containment measures. In Portugal, the first lockdown and consequent confinement was implemented on 18 March 2020, following the declaration of a state of emergency, Decree 14-A/2020, by the Portuguese Presidency. This lockdown lasted approximately 2 months, ending on 4 May 2020. The data collection for this study took place between June and July 2020. This was during the COVID-19 pandemic, but after the first period of lockdown and restriction in Portugal. By this time, schools had reopened, although some precautionary measures continued, such as limiting the number of students per classroom, maintaining social distance in closed areas, and not allowing student groups outside of school.

Portuguese adolescents reported feelings of loss of social competence, mainly related to less contact with peers and relevant academic moments (e.g. graduation ceremonies) (Branquinho et al., 2020). Undeniably, school is an important setting for adolescents, given the role it plays in their lives (e.g. Tian, Chen, et al., 2014). The closure of schools and physical distance from friends may have facilitated the emergence of psychological distress in adolescents (Ellis et al., 2020). Increased self-conflict, conflict with family members, poor understanding of online learning and homework, and social distancing were associated with increased mental distress (Amran, 2020). This may be due to adolescents’ perceived frustration of their basic psychological needs related to the school context, namely autonomy and relatedness to peers (Ellis et al., 2020; Šakan et al., 2020).

According to self-determination theory, these needs consist of three important dimensions – autonomy, competence, and relatedness – that are necessary for the adaptive functioning of individuals (Vansteenkiste et al., 2020). Autonomy refers to a sense of integrity and authenticity achieved through self-directed behaviours. Competence refers to a sense of feeling efficacy, achieved through exerting abilities. Relatedness refers to the need to feel connected to others, through the experience of caring (Vansteenkiste et al., 2020). Research shows an association between adolescents’ school-related subjective well-being and the satisfaction of basic psychological needs (Tian et al., 2016). This promotes their engagement in activities (e.g. soccer, playing an instrument or dancing) and life satisfaction (Leversen et al., 2012). It also contributes to adolescents’ decreasing levels of anxiety (Quested et al., 2011). Higher levels of emotional well-being were associated with the satisfaction of basic psychological needs during the pandemic (Šakan et al., 2020). On the other hand, increased levels of stress related to the COVID-19 reduced students’ well-being, which was negatively associated with autonomy and self-acceptance (Tan et al., 2021). Self-compassion is also related to the satisfaction of basic psychological needs (Wouters-Soomers et al., 2022). Increased self-compassion is associated with academic success (Neff et al., 2005), less academic burnout (Kyeong, 2013), and contributes to increased feelings of relatedness and prosocial behaviours at school (Shen et al., 2023).

In sum, evidence supports the positive relationship between self-compassion, emotional well-being, and basic psychological needs at school. Furthermore, emotional well-being has been proposed to mediate the relationship between self-compassion and adaptive functioning in adolescents (Tran et al., 2022). Despite the numerous evidence on the interplay between these dimensions, the mediating role of emotional well-being in the relationship between self-compassion and the satisfaction of basic psychological needs at school during the pandemic remains underexplored.

This study posits that self-compassion is a modifiable trait that can act as a buffer during stressful events (e.g. COVID-19 pandemic) and is associated with emotional well-being that promotes adolescents’ socioemotional adjustment to changed contexts. In addition, it assumes that adolescents who are predisposed to feel more positive during a health crisis are more likely to achieve satisfaction of basic psychological needs. Thus, this study aimed to examine the mediating role of emotional well-being on the relationship between self-compassion and basic psychological needs at school, following a mediation model according to Hayes (2013). To the best of our knowledge, no study has previously addressed the mediating effect of emotional well-being on this relationship in this population. We hypothesized that emotional well-being would mediate the relationship between self-compassion and basic psychological needs at school in adolescents. Specifically, we expected that increased levels of positive affect, combined with decreased levels of negative affect, would mediate the relationship between self-compassion – self-kindness, self-judgement, common humanity, isolation, mindfulness and overidentification – and basic psychological needs – autonomy, competence, and relatedness – in the school context.

Method

Procedure

This study was reviewed and approved by the ethics committee of the authors’ institutional affiliation. Authorization to collect the data in Portuguese schools was obtained from the Portuguese General Education Direction. From a list of schools in Portugal, we selected a representative sample considering the type of school (middle schools, secondary schools, and schools with middle school and secondary school age groups) and their geographical distribution. Eighty-two schools involved in a larger project were contacted by email or phone. Of these, forty-seven agreed to participate in this additional data collection. The remaining 35 schools were unable to participate because of the constraints associated with online teaching and because their students did not have the technology to participate.

In each school, a teacher who had direct contact with the research team was responsible for inviting students to participate and for ensuring communication with the legal representants of the adolescents. These teachers were selected by the school head teacher based on the length of time they had worked with the class (i.e. teachers who had known the class for more than one school year) and, therefore, their proximity to the students, so that they could more effectively mediate communication with them. Informed consents were sent by email from the schools to the legal representative of each adolescent. The legal representatives of the adolescents provided written informed consent for their participation in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Only those students whose legal representative signed the informed consent were eligible to participate in the study.

After obtaining consent, an online version of the questionnaires was created in Google Forms. The teachers responsible for supervising the data collection at each school sent the link of this Google Form to the students. Answering the questionnaires was voluntary and anonymous. Students did not need to have an account to access the survey online. No compensation or extra credits was offered to students in exchange for their participation. The questionnaires lasted approximately 20 minutes to complete.

Measures

Sociodemographic information

A sociodemographic questionnaire was used to collect data on age, gender, nationality, and other school-related information (e.g. grade). Participants were also asked to report who they lived with.

Emotional well-being

Emotional well-being was assessed using the Portuguese version of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS; Galinha & Pais-Ribeiro, 2005; Watson et al., 1988). The PANAS consists of a list of 20 words describing a set of positive and negative emotions and feelings (e.g. Indicate the extent to which you have felt each of the following emotions in the last few weeks: proud, surprised, excited, upset, guilty, nervous). Adolescents were asked to respond on a five-point Likert scale (from 1 – very slightly to not at all to 5 – extremely). The PANAS has two scales – Positive Affect and Negative Affect – each with 10 items. A total score between 10 and 50 is calculated for each scale. For the Positive Affect scale, a higher score indicates more positive affect, reflecting more pleasure and increased well-being. For the Negative Affect scale, a lower score indicates less negative affect, which also reflects increased well-being (Galinha et al., 2014). To calculate an index of emotional well-being, the negative affect score was subtracted from the positive affect score. In this study, emotional well-being was considered a state variable, as it reflects the presence/absence of different emotions or feelings in the last two weeks (Galinha et al., 2014). Alpha coefficients for the positive affect (α = .81) and negative affect (α = .87) scales indicated good internal consistency reliability.

Self-compassion

Self-compassion was assessed using the Portuguese version of the Self-Compassion Scale – Youth Version (SCS-Y; Neff et al., 2021). This questionnaire includes 17 items that assess cognitive, and emotional behaviours associated with compassionate responses to feelings of personal inadequacy and general life difficulties. These items are grouped into six subscales: self-kindness (e.g. I try to be kind and supportive to myself when I’m having a hard time), self-judgement (e.g. When I notice things about myself that I don’t like, I get really frustrated), common humanity (e.g. When I feel I’m not ‘good enough’ in some way, I try to remind myself that other people sometimes feel this way too), isolation (e.g. When I feel sad or down, it seems like I’m the only one who feels that way), mindfulness (e.g. When something upsetting happens I try to see things as they are without blowing it out of proportion) and overidentification (e.g., When I feel frustrated or disappointed, I think about it over and over again). Items are rated on a 5-point Likert scale (from 1 – almost never to 5 – almost always). The subscales can be used separately or combined to obtain a total score. Items from the self-judgement, isolation and over-identification subscales were reverse scored. Only the total score was used in the mediation analysis. Cronbach’s alpha yielded good consistency results for the total score of SCS-Y (α = .80).

Basic psychological needs at school

Adolescents’ perceived satisfaction with their basic psychological needs at school was assessed using the Adolescent Students’ Basic Psychological Needs at School Scale (ASBPNSS; Tian, Han, et al., 2014). The ASBPNSS is a self-report scale consisting of 15 items, scored on a six-point Likert scale (from 1- strongly disagree to 6 – strongly agree). These items are organized in three subscales: The Need for Autonomy (e.g. I feel like I can pretty much be myself at school), the Need for Relatedness (e.g. I have few close friends at school) and The Need for Competence (e.g. Most days I feel a sense of accomplishment from studying at school). Each subscale consists of five items. The mean of the 15 items was calculated to obtain a total score for the satisfaction of adolescents’ basic psychological needs at school. Cronbach’s alpha yielded good consistency results for the mean score of ASBPNSS (α = .88).

Statistical analyses

Descriptive statistics were performed to assess mean, standard deviation, median and range for all variables in the study. A series of univariate analyses of variance (ANOVAS) were performed to assess gender differences between all study variables. To test the association between all study variables controlling for gender, partial Pearson correlations were calculated using IBM SPSS version 26.0. Mediation analyses were performed using the PROCESS macro 3.5 for IBM SPSS, specifically using model 4 (Hayes, 2013) with bootstrapped confidence intervals. The mediation model is based on a variable (self-compassion) which is theoretically expected to influence an outcome (basic psychological needs) through a mediator variable (emotional well-being). Therefore, the model proposes two pathways through which self-compassion may influence basic psychological needs, controlling for gender (i.e. covariate) (see Hayes, 2013). Indirect effects (the pathway from self-compassion to basic psychological needs through emotional well-being) were based on 95% bias-corrected bootstrap confidence intervals (95% BCBCI; Preacher & Hayes, 2008). The criteria for effect size interpretation (small − 0.01; medium − 0.09; large − 0.25) were based on Preacher and Kelley (2011). The percentage of the total effect that was mediated was also assessed (Shrout & Bolger, 2002).

Results

Emotional well-being, self-compassion, and basic psychological needs at school

Participants were 1092 adolescents (511 boys and 581 girls), aged between 12 and 18 years (M = 12.82; SD = .79). Of these, 974 adolescents were aged 12–13 years, 115 were aged 14–16 years, 2 adolescents were aged 17 years and 1 was aged 18 years. One thousand and forty-eight (96%) were Portuguese, five (0.5%) Brazilian, two (0.2%) Chinese, and two (0.2%) French. Nationality information was missing for 53 (3.3%) students. The participants in this study attended schools in the northern Portugal and were part of a larger research project on students’ engagement with sustainable development. Most participants were in the grade 7 (n = 671; 61.4%), with a smaller proportion in grade 8 (n = 409; 37.5%). Information on grade was missing for 12 (1.1%) adolescents. Almost all students attended a public school (n = 1020; 93.4%), 49 (4.5%) attended a private school and 22 (2.0%) attended a professional school (missing data 0.1%). To be included in the study, all adolescents had to be proficient in Portuguese.

Table 1 shows the means, standard deviations, median, and range of responses for positive and negative affect dimensions, as well as emotional well-being, self-compassion, and basic psychological needs. Overall, participants reported higher levels of positive affect than negative affect, as well as self-compassion and basic psychological needs at school. Univariate analyses indicated that boys had higher levels of positive affect (p = .010), emotional well-being (p = .001) and self-compassion (p < .001) than girls. No gender differences were found for negative affect or basic psychological needs (see Table 1).

Table 1. Means, standard deviations, medians, and range values, as well as between-gender differences results, for positive and negative affect, emotional well-being, self-compassion, and basic psychological needs at school.

Variables	Total (n = 1092)			Boys (n = 511)			Girls (n = 581)			Between-gender differences
	M (SD)	Median	Range	M (SD)	Median	Range	M (SD)	Median	Range	F(1,1090)	p
Emotional Well-Being	.99 (.71)	1.10	−1.50–2.70	1.07 (.69)	1.10	−1.20–2.70	0.93 (.72)	1.00	−1.50–2.60	11.98	.001
Negative Affect	1.68 (.57)	1.50	1–4	1.64 (.69)	1.50	1–4	1.71 (.54)	1.60	1–4	3.63	.057
Positive Affect	2.67 (.49)	2.70	1–4	2.71 (.51)	2.80	1–4	2.63 (.48)	2.70	1–4	6.70	.010
Self-Compassion	3.03 (.56)	3.06	1–5	3.13 (.50)	3.12	1–4.88	2.94 (.60)	3.00	1–4.94	33.42	<.001
Self-kindness	3.34 (.78)	3.33	1–5	3.42 (.77)	3.33	1–5	3.26 (.78)	3.33	1–5	11.44	.001
Self-judgement	3.00 (.72)	3.00	1–5	3.10 (.65)	3.00	1–5	2.92 (.77)	3.00	1–5	17.06	<.001
Common Humanity	3.02 (.69)	3.00	1–5	3.10 (.66)	3.00	1–5	2.95 (.72)	3.00	1–5	12.75	<.001
Isolation	3.01 (.82)	3.00	1–5	3.18 (.77)	3.00	1–5	2.86 (.83)	3.00	1–5	42.20	<.001
Mindfulness	2.85 (.92)	3.00	1–5	2.93 (.92)	3.00	1–5	2.78 (.92)	3.00	1–5	6.56	.011
Overidentification	2.93 (.82)	3.00	1–5	3.06 (.77)	3.00	1–5	2.82 (.85)	3.00	1–5	24.20	<.001
Basic Psychological Needs	3.91 (.53)	3.93	1–5	3.88 (.55)	3.87	1.67–5	3.94 (.50)	3.93	1–5	3.46	.063
Need for Autonomy	4.00 (.66)	4.00	1–5	3.94 (.68)	4.00	1.20–5	4.05 (.63)	4.00	1–5	6.57	.011
Need for Relatedness	4.09 (.66)	4.00	1–5	4.05 (.68)	4.00	1.40–5	4.12 (.65)	4.20	1–5	2.89	.089
Need for Competence	3.65 (.55)	3.60	1–5	3.65 (.68)	4.00	1.40–5	3.66 (.52)	3.60	1–5	.060	.807

The associations between positive and negative affect, emotional well-being, self-compassion, and basic psychological needs, controlling for gender, are presented in Table 2. Positive and statistically and significant associations were observed between emotional well-being, self-compassion, and basic psychological needs.

Table 2. Partial pearson’s correlations between positive and negative affect, emotional well-being, self-compassion, and basic psychological needs, controlling for gender (N = 1092).

	Positive affect	Negative affect	Emotional well-being	Basic Psychological Needs	Self-compassion
Positive affect	-
Negative affect	.10*	-
Emotional well-being	.61**	−.73**	-
Basic Psychological Needs	.36**	−.21**	.41**	-
Self-compassion	.24**	−.37**	.46**	.24**	-

The mediating role of emotional well-being on the relation between self-compassion and basic psychological need satisfaction at school

The mediation model explained 17.5% of the variance in basic psychological needs at school, R² = .175, F(3, 1088) = 76.89, p < .001.

The association between self-compassion and basic psychological needs at school was significant, β = .24, t(1089) = 8.15, p < .001; 95% BCBCI .17–.28, and a significant association with the covariate gender was observed, β = .10, t(1089) = 3.29, p = .001; 95% BCBCI .04–.17. The association between self-compassion and emotional well-being (mediator) was significant, β = .46, t(1089) = 17.05, p < .001; 95% BCBCI .52–.65, although a non-significant association was observed with the covariate gender, β = −.02, t(1089) = −0.73 p = .465; 95% BCBCI −.11 – .05. The association between emotional well-being (mediator) and basic psychological needs at school was significant, β = .39, t(1089) = 12.29, p < .001; 95% BCBCI .24–.33.

The association between self-compassion and basic psychological needs was significant after controlling for emotional well-being (mediator), β = .07; t(1089) = 2.09, p = .037; 95% BCBCI .00–.12 (Figure 1). A significant association with the covariate gender was also observed, β = .10, t(1089) = 3.78, p < .001; 95% BCBCI 0.05–.17. The mediation effect size was .18, 95% CI (.14–.21), with 74.8% of the total association between self-compassion and basic psychological needs at school being mediated by emotional well-being (Figure 1).

Figure 1. The mediating role of emotional well-being in the relationship between self-compassion and psychological basic needs at school (N = 1092).

Discussion

The aim of this study was to investigate the mediating role of adolescents’ emotional well-being on the relationship between self-compassion and the satisfaction of basic psychological needs in a school context. The COVID-19 pandemic and the measures taken to control its spread can be considered a life adversity (Loades et al., 2021; Smith & Pollak, 2021) that has affected adolescents’ lives by imposing feelings of loneliness and mental health problems (Figueiredo et al., 2021). Therefore, it is important to clarify the role of emotional well-being and self-compassion in adolescents’ emotional and social adjustment during stressful events by examining how these dimensions can promote positive developmental outcomes in the context of a public health emergency. Understanding adolescents’ strengths may provide constructive interactions between adolescents and their contexts (Larson, 2000), which can help to promote successful coping mechanisms (Taylor et al., 2017). Evidence suggests that increased levels of emotional well-being and self-compassion may act as protective factors against adversity by promoting resilience and positive adjustment (Hall-Lande et al., 2007).

Results indicated that emotional well-being was positively associated with self-compassion and basic psychological needs satisfaction at school in adolescents. Our findings are consistent with previous evidence showing that these are closely related constructs, as emotional well-being seems to be associated with self-compassion (Galla, 2016; Sun et al., 2016) and with the satisfaction of basic psychological needs (Wouters-Soomers et al., 2022). It appears that adolescents who engage in self-kindness attitudes (e.g. sympathy towards distress) and mindfulness (e.g. non-judgemental attitude) also present greater levels of well-being. As such, these adolescents may experience less stress and cope more effectively, even during stressful events that may compromise their social and emotional development (Neff & McGehee, 2010; Nguyen & Le, 2021).

The study also showed that self-compassion was positively associated with the satisfaction of basic psychological needs at school. This suggests that self-compassionate adolescents may have been more willing to engage and participate in various academic activities (Neff et al., 2005) and in social relationships (Shen et al., 2023). Thus, self-compassion and emotional well-being in adolescents appear to contribute to their sense of autonomy, competence and relatedness in the school context by maintaining their involvement in regular daily activities, even in changed contexts (e.g. school closure or home confinement) during stressful environmental circumstances (e.g. COVID-19 pandemic) (Ellis et al., 2020; Leversen et al., 2012). Adolescents who are more self-compassionate, coupled with a more balanced emotional perspective, may be more resilient when experiencing difficulties (Bluth & Blanton, 2015).

Between-group comparisons showed that boys reported more positive affect and emotional well-being compared to girls. Boys also reported higher levels of self-compassion than girls. These findings are consistent with existing pre-pandemic research showing that boys report more positive affect and self-compassion (Bluth & Blanton, 2015; Bluth et al., 2016), and with pandemic-related data showing that girls tend to report more negative mental health outcomes (i.e. anxiety) (Pizarro-Ruiz & Ordóñez-Camblor, 2021; Yoo & Jang, 2023) and a greater negative impact of the pandemic on well-being (Halldorsdottir et al., 2021). These results are also in line with other evidence suggesting that adolescent girls are more prone to symptoms of depression and anxiety (Magson et al., 2021). Indeed, emotional well-being appears to be a protective factor against real-life threating situations (Caffo et al., 2020). However, it may be that young girls find it more difficult to downregulate negative affect and, therefore, have lower levels of positive affect and emotional well-being, which may promote the emergence of internalizing symptoms (e.g. depression and anxiety) (Silk et al., 2003; Young et al., 2019).

The lower levels of self-compassion, also reported by girls, seem to further support the presence of more emotional disturbance in girls. Pandemic-related evidence also supports this finding, with research showing that girls scored lower on self-compassion and resilience and higher on COVID-19-related anxiety (Nazari et al., 2022) compared to boys. It is possible that their lower levels of self-compassion – i.e. lower self-kindness and mindfulness, along with lower emotional well-being (e.g. experiencing more negative affect) – may promote and contribute to increased emotional difficulties, particularly during stressful periods such as the COVID-19 crisis (Beato et al., 2021; Ellis et al., 2020; Francisco et al., 2020; Orgilés et al., 2020).

Consistent with our expectations, the mediation model revealed a moderate to large effect of adolescents’ emotional well-being in the relationship between self-compassion and the satisfaction of basic psychological needs at school. This finding is supported by evidence demonstrating the close relationship between these dimensions and their impact on maintaining healthy coping styles (e.g. self-compassionate approach to challenging situations) (Beshai et al., 2018; Neff & McGehee, 2010). The empirical finding of this study indicates that emotional well-being may act as a mediating dimension between self-compassion and functioning outcomes, which is consistent with other evidence (Tran et al., 2022). Self-compassionate adolescents who reported increased emotional well-being may have been better able to cope with the satisfaction of their basic psychological needs at school, such as maintaining feelings of relatedness to friends and colleagues, academic success, and autonomy, despite the changed context (e.g. school closure). This is in line with other evidence showing that self-compassion and emotional well-being are associated with adaptive functioning outcomes (Kyeong, 2013; Tan et al., 2021; Wouters-Soomers et al., 2022). In light of these findings, it is possible that self-compassion may have worked as an emotional coping strategy and protective factor (e.g. Singh et al., 2020) that, mediated by emotional well-being, positively influenced young adolescents’ sense of integrity and authenticity (autonomy), feeling effective (competence), and being able to connect with others (relatedness) (Šakan et al., 2020; Vansteenkiste et al., 2020). This is consistent with evidence that better emotion regulation skills, through upregulation of positive affect and downregulation of negative affect, and the promotion of self-compassionate attitudes, are related to the satisfaction of basic psychological needs (Benita et al., 2020). It is important to note, however, that other factors may affect emotional well-being, self-compassion, and basic psychological needs, such as the confinement and being socially distant (Preston & Rew, 2022), reduced engagement in academic activities (Holzer et al., 2021), financial worries (Yoo & Jang, 2023) or sleep disturbances (Halldorsdottir et al., 2021).

Our results have important implications for adolescents’ social and emotional adjustment in the context of a public health emergency. Indeed, the COVID-19 pandemic and the containment measures led adolescents to experience feelings of isolation and deprivation from important social relationships and contexts (e.g. school) (Branquinho et al., 2020). The perceived stress associated with these changes has influenced adolescents’ social and emotional adjustment (Figueiredo et al., 2021) and mental health (Ellis et al., 2020), with some authors suggesting that the pandemic represents a life adversity that may affect adolescent development (Smith & Pollak, 2021). Thus, this study demonstrates that self-compassion and emotional well-being can be protective against stressful events by promoting resilience, adjustment, and the likelihood of adaptive developmental outcomes (Kotera et al., 2021).

Importantly, the assessment of these dimensions occurred after the first period of lockdown imposed by the Portuguese Presidency in 2020. Although the negative impact of social distancing and lockdown during the COVID-19 outbreak on adolescents’ mental health has been addressed (Francisco et al., 2020; Orgilés et al., 2020), this study suggests that adolescents’ satisfaction of basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence and relatedness) at school is related to the positive impact of resuming academic activities and social relationships, in person, after isolation (Ellis et al., 2020).

Globally, these findings may provide important information related to possible intervention programmes with adolescents to help them cope with crises, adversity, and unexpected life changes, such as those associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, self-compassion seems to act as a protective factor when faced with challenging situations. Improving self-compassion and self-care may minimize stress, depression, and anxiety symptoms in adolescents, especially in young girls (e.g. Bluth & Blanton, 2015; Caffo et al., 2020). Modelling strategies can be used to enhance adolescents’ emotional well-being and help them reduce the negative impact of difficult circumstances. Self-compassion and emotional well-being can be considered as two positive factors that contribute to resilience and effective coping with the COVID-19 pandemic. These dimensions also appear to be related to the fulfilment of basic psychological needs, another aspect contributing to the successful adjustment of adolescents to school and social contexts that are important for their development.

This study has some limitations. The questionnaires were completed online, which meant that we were unable to identify difficulties in understanding the items and to reflect on doubts about their answers. Also, the lack of a relevant measure to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on adolescents’ mental health limits the interpretation of the protective role of emotional well-being, self-compassion, and basic psychological needs. Future studies should consider collect information regarding the confinement period (e.g. online contact with peers) and information related with stressors associated with the COVID-19 (e.g. if the adolescent, or a family member, was infected with the SARS-CoV-2, and if so, how severe it was) to control for possible effects on adolescents’ emotional well-being and self-compassion. Another limitation was that we did not collect data on adolescents’ social relationships or school-related information (e.g. number of friends, academic performance, or difficulties in the school context). Future studies should consider studying the association of these variables with the positive constructs addressed in this investigation, which may help reduce type I error in the statistical analysis. Importantly, most participants were aged 12–13 years, which limits the generalizability of our findings. Future studies should replicate our results using a more representative sample considering the adolescents developmental stage (early, middle, or late). Another limitation is the cross-sectional design of this study, which doesn’t allow us to consider the long-term effects of emotional well-being and self-compassion on the satisfaction of basic psychological needs at school in the context of a prolonged challenging situation such as the pandemic. Future studies should examine the longitudinal effects of these dimensions to clearly understand their protective role. It is also important that future studies examine the protective role of these dimensions in adolescents who may be suffering from prolonged COVID or post-COVID conditions.

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.

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).

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].