The mediating effects of altruistic behavior and communication skills between self-compassion and caring ability in...

Caring ability is a necessary ability for nursing staff, which can be improved through acquired training. The cultivation of students' caring ability is the key to determine the quality of nursing in the future. While there is an extensive body of literature on the caring abilities of nursing students, numerous factors influence these abilities, and there remains a paucity of research on the nexus between self-compassion and caring ability. This study aimed to investigate the mediating roles of altruistic behavior and communication skills in the relationship between self-compassion and caring ability among nursing students.

The subjects of this study were 1567 undergraduate nursing students from four universities in different regions of China. An online survey was conducted using the Caring Ability Inventory (CAI), Self-Compassion Scale (SCS), Altruistic Behavior Questionnaire of College Students (ABQ-CS), and Supportive Communication Scale (SCS). SPSS 25.0 was utilized for descriptive analysis, independent sample t-tests, variance analysis, and Pearson correlation analysis. AMOS 23.0 was employed for mediation analysis.

The total scores of caring ability was 184.65 ± 23.65. The results showed that caring ability was significantly correlated with self-compassion(r = 0.614,P<0.001), altruistic behavior (r = 0.698,P<0.001) and supportive communication skills (r = 0.581,P<0.001). The direct effects of self-compassion (β = 0.304;0.259 ~ 0.349), altruistic behavior (β = 0.429;0.380 ~ 0.477), communication skills (β = 0.151; 0.110 ~ 0.194) on caring ability were confirmed. The self-compassion has indirect effects (β = 0.312;0.278 ~ 0.348) on caring ability by altruistic behavior and supportive communication skills among nursing student. The indirect effects accounted for total effect 30.88% with the direct effects accounted 69.12%.

The caring ability of nursing students is at the medium level. The altruistic behavior and communication skills of nursing students have mediating roles between self-compassion and caring ability. To improve caring ability for nursing students, educational strategies must be created to improve the self-compassion, altruistic behavior and communication skills. Interventions that self-compassion nursing students have the potential to enhance caring ability.