The Impact of Anxiety in College Students on Active Stress Coping: Parallel Multiple Mediation Effect of Self-Compassion

The purpose of this study is to verify the parallel multiple mediating effect of self-compassion in the relationship between anxiety and active stress coping in college students and to determine which variables of self-compassion are effective in helping anxious college students actively cope with stress. As a research method to establish the purpose of this study, data were collected from college students who voluntarily participated online, and the collected data was analyzed using SPSSS 26.0 and PROCESS Macro Model 4. The main research results are as follows. First, as a result of confirming the correlation between the main variables used in this study: anxiety, self-compassion, problem-focused coping, and social support coping, anxiety was negatively correlated with self-compassion, negatively correlated with problem-focused coping, and negatively correlated with social support coping. Problem-focused coping was positively correlated with self-compassion, and social support coping was also positively correlated with self-compassion. Second, as a result of confirming the parallel multiple mediating effects of self-kindness, universal humanity, and mindfulness, which are sub-variables of self-compassion, in the relationship between anxiety and problem-focused coping in college students, the partial mediating effect of mindfulness was confirmed. Third, as a result of confirming the parallel multiple mediating effects of self-kindness, universal humanity, and mindfulness, which are sub-variables of self-compassion, in the relationship between anxiety and social support coping in college students, the full mediating effect of universal humanity was confirmed. It was verified that the sub-factors of self-compassion are different when anxious college students actively cope with stressful situations. Since it has been verified that the sub-factors of self-compassion are different when anxious college students actively cope with stressful situations, the results of this study can be used as a theoretical basis for content selection, counseling, and education of various extracurricular programs to help them.