Compassion Protects Mental Health and Social Safeness During the COVID-19 Pandemic Across 21 Countries

Marcela Matos¹, Kirsten McEwan², Martin Kanovský³, Júlia Halamová⁴, Stanley R Steindl⁵, Nuno Ferreira⁶, Mariana Linharelhos¹, Daniel Rijo¹, Kenichi Asano⁷, Margarita G Márquez⁸, Sónia Gregório^{1

8}, Sara P Vilas⁸, Gonzalo Brito-Pons⁹, Paola Lucena-Santos¹, Margareth da Silva Oliveira¹⁰, Erika Leonardo de Souza¹¹, Lorena Llobenes¹², Natali Gumiy¹², Maria Ileana Costa¹², Noor Habib¹³, Reham Hakem¹³, Hussain Khrad¹³, Ahmad Alzahrani¹³, Simone Cheli¹⁴, Nicola Petrocchi¹⁵, Elli Tholouli¹⁶, Philia Issari¹⁶, Gregoris Simos¹⁷, Vibeke Lunding-Gregersen¹⁸, Ask Elklit¹⁹, Russell Kolts²⁰, Allison C Kelly²¹, Catherine Bortolon^{22

23}, Pascal Delamillieure^{24

25}, Marine Paucsik²², Julia E Wahl^{26

27}, Mariusz Zieba²⁷, Mateusz Zatorski²⁷, Tomasz Komendziński^{28

29}, Shuge Zhang³⁰, Jaskaran Basran², Antonios Kagialis⁶, James Kirby⁵, Paul Gilbert²

Affiliations

¹ Center for Research in Neuropsychology and Cognitive Behavioral Intervention (CINEICC), University of Coimbra, 3000-115 Coimbra, Portugal.
² College of Health, Psychology and Social Care, Centre for Compassion Research and Training, University of Derby, Derby, UK.
³ Institute of Social Anthropology, Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia.
⁴ Institute of Applied Psychology, Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia.
⁵ School of Psychology, Compassionate Mind Research Group, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
⁶ Department of Social Sciences, University of Nicosia, Nicosia, Cyprus.
⁷ Department of Psychological Counseling, Faculty of Psychology, Mejiro University, Tokyo, Japan.
⁸ Department of Psychology, Faculty of Biomedical and Health Sciences. Behavior, emotions, and health research group, Universidad Europea de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
⁹ Escuela de Psicología, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
¹⁰ Evaluation and Treatment in Cognitive and Behavioral Psychotherapies - Research Group (GAAPCC), Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande Do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil.
¹¹ Conectta: Mindfulness & Compassion, São Paulo, Brazil.
¹² Motivación Compasiva, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
¹³ Neuroscience Department, Section of Psychiatry and Psychology, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre (KFSH&RC), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
¹⁴ School of Human Health Sciences, University of Florence, Florence, Italy.
¹⁵ Department of Economics and Social Sciences, John Cabot University, Rome, Italy.
¹⁶ Center for Qualitative Research in Psychology and Psychosocial Well-Being, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
¹⁷ Department of Educational and Social Policy, University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Greece.
¹⁸ Mindwork Psycological Center, Copenhagen, Denmark.
¹⁹ Department of Psychology, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark.
²⁰ Department of Psychology, Eastern Washington University, Cheney, WA USA.
²¹ Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada.
²² Laboratoire Inter-Universitaire de Psychologie: Personnalité, Cognition Et Changement Social, Grenoble Alpes University, Grenoble, France.
²³ C3R - Réhabilitation psychosociale et remédiation cognitive, Centre Hospitalier Alpes Isère, Grenoble, France.
²⁴ Service de Psychiatrie Adulte, CHU de Caen, 14000 Caen, France.
²⁵ UNICAEN, ISTS, GIP Cyceron, University of Normandy, Caen, France.
²⁶ The Mind Institute Poland, Warsaw, Poland.
²⁷ SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warsaw &, Poznań, Poland.
²⁸ Department of Cognitive Science, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torún, Poland.
²⁹ Neurocognitive Laboratory, Centre for Modern Interdisciplinary Technologies, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torún, Poland.
³⁰ School of Human Sciences, University of Derby, Derby, UK.

PMID: 35003380
PMCID: PMC8724602
DOI: 10.1007/s12671-021-01822-2

Compassion Protects Mental Health and Social Safeness During the COVID-19 Pandemic Across 21 Countries

Marcela Matos et al. Mindfulness (N Y). 2022.

. 2022;13(4):863-880.

doi: 10.1007/s12671-021-01822-2. Epub 2022 Jan 4.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Center for Research in Neuropsychology and Cognitive Behavioral Intervention (CINEICC), University of Coimbra, 3000-115 Coimbra, Portugal.
² College of Health, Psychology and Social Care, Centre for Compassion Research and Training, University of Derby, Derby, UK.
³ Institute of Social Anthropology, Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia.
⁴ Institute of Applied Psychology, Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia.
⁵ School of Psychology, Compassionate Mind Research Group, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
⁶ Department of Social Sciences, University of Nicosia, Nicosia, Cyprus.
⁷ Department of Psychological Counseling, Faculty of Psychology, Mejiro University, Tokyo, Japan.
⁸ Department of Psychology, Faculty of Biomedical and Health Sciences. Behavior, emotions, and health research group, Universidad Europea de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
⁹ Escuela de Psicología, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
¹⁰ Evaluation and Treatment in Cognitive and Behavioral Psychotherapies - Research Group (GAAPCC), Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande Do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil.
¹¹ Conectta: Mindfulness & Compassion, São Paulo, Brazil.
¹² Motivación Compasiva, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
¹³ Neuroscience Department, Section of Psychiatry and Psychology, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre (KFSH&RC), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
¹⁴ School of Human Health Sciences, University of Florence, Florence, Italy.
¹⁵ Department of Economics and Social Sciences, John Cabot University, Rome, Italy.
¹⁶ Center for Qualitative Research in Psychology and Psychosocial Well-Being, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
¹⁷ Department of Educational and Social Policy, University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Greece.
¹⁸ Mindwork Psycological Center, Copenhagen, Denmark.
¹⁹ Department of Psychology, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark.
²⁰ Department of Psychology, Eastern Washington University, Cheney, WA USA.
²¹ Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada.
²² Laboratoire Inter-Universitaire de Psychologie: Personnalité, Cognition Et Changement Social, Grenoble Alpes University, Grenoble, France.
²³ C3R - Réhabilitation psychosociale et remédiation cognitive, Centre Hospitalier Alpes Isère, Grenoble, France.
²⁴ Service de Psychiatrie Adulte, CHU de Caen, 14000 Caen, France.
²⁵ UNICAEN, ISTS, GIP Cyceron, University of Normandy, Caen, France.
²⁶ The Mind Institute Poland, Warsaw, Poland.
²⁷ SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warsaw &, Poznań, Poland.
²⁸ Department of Cognitive Science, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torún, Poland.
²⁹ Neurocognitive Laboratory, Centre for Modern Interdisciplinary Technologies, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torún, Poland.
³⁰ School of Human Sciences, University of Derby, Derby, UK.

PMID: 35003380
PMCID: PMC8724602
DOI: 10.1007/s12671-021-01822-2

Abstract

Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic is having an unprecedented detrimental impact on mental health in people around the world. It is important therefore to explore factors that may buffer or accentuate the risk of mental health problems in this context. Given that compassion has numerous benefits for mental health, emotion regulation, and social relationships, this study examines the buffering effects of different flows of compassion (for self, for others, from others) against the impact of perceived threat of COVID-19 on depression, anxiety, and stress, and social safeness.

Methods: The study was conducted in a sample of 4057 adult participants from the general community population, collected across 21 countries from Europe, Middle East, North America, South America, Asia, and Oceania. Participants completed self-report measures of perceived threat of COVID-19, compassion (for self, for others, from others), depression, anxiety, stress, and social safeness.

Results: Perceived threat of COVID-19 was associated with higher scores in depression, anxiety, and stress, and lower scores in social safeness. Self-compassion and compassion from others were associated with lower psychological distress and higher social safeness. Compassion for others was associated with lower depressive symptoms. Self-compassion moderated the relationship between perceived threat of COVID-19 on depression, anxiety, and stress, whereas compassion from others moderated the effects of fears of contracting COVID-19 on social safeness. These effects were consistent across all countries.

Conclusions: Our findings highlight the universal protective role of compassion, in particular self-compassion and compassion from others, in promoting resilience by buffering against the harmful effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health and social safeness.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12671-021-01822-2.

Keywords: COVID-19; Compassion; Mental health; Moderator effect; Multinational study; Social safeness.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of InterestThe authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

**Fig. 1**
Marginal effects of moderation of self-compassion (CEASselfC) on the impact of fear of contraction of COVID-19 (PTCSfearC) on depression, anxiety, and stress (DASS)

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Compassion Protects Mental Health and Social Safeness During the COVID-19 Pandemic Across 21 Countries

Affiliations

Compassion Protects Mental Health and Social Safeness During the COVID-19 Pandemic Across 21 Countries

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

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