Self-compassion and self-concept clarity mediated by resilience: variable-centered and person-centered approaches

Self-concept clarity is an important factor in the mental health of college students. While existing research has examined the positive relationship between self-compassion (self-kindness, mindfulness, and common humanity) and self-concept clarity, the mechanisms underlying this relationship need further investigation. This study aimed to integrate variable- and person-centered approaches to examine the relationship between self-compassion and self-concept clarity and explore the possible mediating role of resilience.

Data from 1,353 Chinese college students were collected in December 2023 using the revised Chinese versions of the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS), Self-Concept Clarity Scale (SCCS), and the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale-10 (CD-RISC-10). Simple mediation and latent profile analyses were performed using SPSS 26.0 and Mplus 7.0.

The variable-centered analysis showed that resilience played a mediating role in the relationship between self-compassion and self-concept clarity and between the three components of self-compassion and self-concept clarity. When resilience was included in the mediation model, common humanity had the strongest direct effect on self-concept clarity, and resilience played the strongest mediating role in the mindfulness pathway. As a further supplement to variable-centered results, person-centered analysis showed that the sample could be classified into three latent profiles, with the high self-compassion profile showing the highest resilience and self-concept clarity. Additionally, when the low self-compassion profile was used as the reference, resilience still played a relatively mediating role in the vulnerable and high profiles, but a direct relationship between self-compassion and self-concept clarity was only found in the high-profile.

This study highlights the important role of self-compassion and resilience in promoting self-concept clarity and necessitates the design of subgroup-specific intervention programs for students in the future.