Moderating role of compassion in the link between fear of Coronavirus disease and mental health among undergraduate students

Huichun Zhang; Saade Abdalkareem Jasim; Wanich Suksatan; Tawfeeq Abdulameer Hashim Alghazali; Rumi Iqbal Doewes; Abduladheem Turki Jalil; Indrajit Patra; Nermeen Singer; Virgilio E Failoc-Rojas; Haydar Abdulameer Marhoon; Yasser Fakri Mustafa; Andrés Alexis Ramírez-Coronel; Abbas Abdollahi

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2022.990678

Moderating role of compassion in the link between fear of Coronavirus disease and mental health among undergraduate students

Front Psychiatry. 2022 Sep 6:13:990678. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.990678. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Huichun Zhang¹, Saade Abdalkareem Jasim², Wanich Suksatan³, Tawfeeq Abdulameer Hashim Alghazali⁴, Rumi Iqbal Doewes⁵, Abduladheem Turki Jalil⁶, Indrajit Patra⁷, Nermeen Singer⁸, Virgilio E Failoc-Rojas⁹, Haydar Abdulameer Marhoon¹⁰, Yasser Fakri Mustafa¹¹, Andrés Alexis Ramírez-Coronel^{12

13

14

15}, Abbas Abdollahi¹⁶

Affiliations

¹ Student Work Department of the Party Committee and Student Work Department, Inner Mongolia University of Technology, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China.
² Medical Laboratory Techniques Department, Al-Maarif University College, Al-Anbar-Ramadi, Iraq.
³ Faculty of Nursing, HRH Princess Chulabhorn College of Medical Science, Chulabhorn Royal Academy, Bangkok, Thailand.
⁴ Islamic University, Najaf, Iraq.
⁵ Faculty of Sport, Universitas Sebelas Maret, Kentingan, Surakarta, Indonesia.
⁶ Medical Laboratories Techniques Department, Al-Mustaqbal University College, Babylon, Hilla, Iraq.
⁷ Independent Researcher, NIT Durgapur, West Bengal, India.
⁸ Media and Children's Culture, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
⁹ Centro de Investigación en Medicina Traslacional, Universidad Privada Norbert Wiener, Lima, Peru.
¹⁰ Information and Communication Technology Research Group, Scientific Research Center, Al-Ayen University, Thi-Qar, Iraq.
¹¹ Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, College of Pharmacy, University of Mosul, Mosul, Iraq.
¹² Laboratory of Psychometrics and Ethology and Health and Behavior Research Group, Universidad Católica de Cuenca, Ecuador.
¹³ Universidad CES, Medellín, Colombia.
¹⁴ Universidad Nacional del Ecuador Cuenca, Ecuador.
¹⁵ Universidad de Palermo, Argentina.
¹⁶ Department of Counseling, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Background: The societal challenges presented by fear related to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic may present unique challenges for an individual's mental health. However, the moderating role of compassion in the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and mental health has not been well-studied. The present study aimed to explore the association between fear of COVID-19 and mental health, as well as test the buffering role of compassion in this relationship.

Methods: The participants in this study were 325 Iranian undergraduate students (228 females), aged 18-25 years, who completed questionnaires posted on social networks via a web-based platform.

Results: The results showed that fear of COVID-19 was positively related with physical symptoms, social function, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms. The results also showed that compassion was negatively associated with physical symptoms, social function, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms. The interaction-moderation analysis revealed that compassion moderated the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and subscale of mental health.

Conclusion: Results highlight the important role of compassion in diminishing the effect of fear of COVID-19 on the mental health (physical symptoms, social function, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms) of undergraduate students.

Keywords: fear of COVID-19; mental health; partial least squares; self-compassion; university students.

Publication types

Retracted Publication

Associated data

figshare/10.6084/m9.figshare.13654133.v1