Don’t be so hard on yourself! UBC study on first-year student stress

Stressed out university students, take note: self-compassion may be the key to making it through your first year, according to new research from the University of British Columbia.

Researchers from the faculty of education’s school of kinesiology found students who reported higher levels of self-compassion felt more energetic, alive and optimistic during their first semester of university. When the students’ sense of self-compassion levels rose, so too did their engagement and motivation with life.

“Our study suggests the psychological stress students may experience during the transition between high school and university can be mitigated with self-compassion because it enhances the psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness, which in turn, enriches well-being,” said Katie Gunnell, the study’s lead author and a junior research scientist at Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute in Ottawa. The study was part of Gunnell’s PhD work at UBC.

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