Mediation of Self-Compassion on Pathways from Stress and Anxiety to Depression among Portuguese Higher Education Students.

Higher education is a context that requires students to develop academic, social and institutional tasks. As a result of this complex and multidimensional process, students tend to experience greater stress, anxiety and depression, making it crucial for students to mobilize a set of essential personal, social and instrumental resources, for a more positive adaptation to the academic context. Self-compassion is an adaptative emotion-regulation strategy and may help students to better adjust to academic issues. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of self-compassion as a mediator in the relationship between anxiety and depression, as well as stress and depression. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using an online questionnaire distributed through social media. Stress and anxiety were found to be positively related to depression scores and negatively related to self-compassion. A bootstrapped mediation model confirmed the existence of a significant positive partial mediation effect exerted by self-compassion on the relationship between stress and depression (b = 0.12, 95% CI [0.05, 0.18]). The analysis also showed a significant positive partial mediation effect exerted by self-compassion in the relationship between anxiety and depression (b = 0.13, 95% CI [0.08, 0.18]). Conclusions: Self-compassion might partially mediate the relationship between stress and depression and between anxiety and depression. Findings underscore self-compassion as a potentially protective factor against negative psychological symptoms.

Creative Self-Efficacy Scale for Children and Adolescents (CASES): A Development and Validation Study.

Creative self-efficacy has emerged as one of the most striking constructs in education. Yet, instruments to assess it in children and adolescents are scant. This article introduces the CASES, a new creative self-efficacy scale designed to address this concern. The process of development and initial validation of the scale are presented herein. Following the items' conception, exploratory, and confirmatory factorial analysis was performed. The final structure comprises nine items, evenly distributed by three factors: fluency, elaboration, and personality. Preliminary reliability and validity analysis display good psychometric properties, highlighting CASES as a potentially relevant addition to the creative self-efficacy assessment instruments array. Designed for children and adolescents (ages 3 to 16), it can uphold a developmental approach of creative self-efficacy, with potential implications within educational settings. Thus, it might be of interest for parents, educators, educational psychologists, researchers, and policymakers involved in designing curricula and interventions to nurture and enhance creative potential.

La autoeficacia creativa (AC) se ha convertido en uno de los constructos más discutidos de la educación. Sin embargo, los instrumentos para evaluarlo en niños y adolescentes son escasos. Este artículo presenta el proceso de desarrollo y validación inicial de CASES, una nueva medida de AC diseñada para esa populación. Tras la concepción de los ítems, se realizó un análisis factorial exploratorio y confirmatorio. La estructura final es constituida por nueve ítems, distribuidos uniformemente por tres factores: fluidez, elaboración y personalidad. Los análisis preliminares de confiabilidad y validez muestran buenas propiedades psicométricas, destacando la CASES como una adición potencialmente relevante al conjunto de instrumentos de evaluación de la AC. Diseñada para niños y adolescentes (de 3 a 16 años), puede permitir un enfoque en el desarrollo de AC con posibles implicaciones educativas. Por consiguiente, podrá ser de interés para padres, educadores, psicólogos educativos, investigadores y políticos implicados en el diseño de currículos e intervenciones capaces de nutrir y mejorar el potencial creativo.