Empathy is a multifaceted concept that entails both affective and cognitive elements; and these elements consist of “the capacity to experience the emotions of another” and “the capacity to comprehend the emotions of another” respectively (Jolliffe & Farrington, 2006, p. 589). For instance, empathetic individuals can connect to and understand someone else’s suffering by putting themselves in their shoes (Hemmerdinger et al., 2007; Sinclair et al., 2017). More interestingly, research on empathy has been extensively conducted in the field of health professions education, demonstrating that empathy is a crucial personality trait for students (e.g., Huang et al., 2019; Sa et al., 2019). Preliminary findings have found positive associations between empathy towards others and subjective well-being among college students (Wei et al., 2011). For example, students with higher empathy reported higher levels of life satisfaction (Coll et al., 2020) and lower levels of negative affect and higher levels of happiness (Tkach, 2005; Wei et al., 2011). However, young adults in college are unlikely to have an in-depth understanding of themselves or others, particularly the interconnected nature of their own and others’ suffering that comes with getting older and having necessary life experiences (Grotevant et al., 1999; Marcia, 1994). Therefore, it is important to cultivate empathy in undergraduate students.
Various studies have demonstrated a link between self-compassion and empathy (e.g., Lyvers et al., 2020; Marshall et al., 2020; Welp & Brown, 2014). However, their research findings have been limited, and empirical research on mediating mechanisms in the relationships between self-compassion and empathy remains unclear. Regarding the research findings, several studies have demonstrated a positive association between self-compassion and empathy (as measured by Toronto Empathy Questionnaire) (Lyvers et al., 2020) while other research has supported mixed results (Marshall et al., 2020) or they did not report any relationships between self-compassion and empathetic concern which is a subscale of empathy (Neff & Pommier, 2013). Previous studies have also shed light on the direct influences of (1) self-compassion on empathy (Lyvers et al., 2020; Welp & Brown, 2014), (2) self-compassion on self-esteem (Souza & Hutz, 2016; Barry et al., 2015), and (3) self-esteem on empathy (Huang et al., 2019; Sa et al., 2019). Due to the inconsistencies in previous work and a few studies on the mediating mechanisms between self-compassion and empathy, there has been a need for more research to investigate the factors that may intervene in the relationships between self-compassion and self-esteem (see Marshall et al., 2020). This is also the gap that this current study seeks to cover. Our research aimed to uncover the factors that contribute to achieving and sustaining undergraduate students’ empathy.
Self-compassion and empathy
Cross-sectional studies have found a positive link between self-compassion and empathy (e.g., Lyvers & Thorberg, 2020; Marshall et al., 2020; Neff & Pommier, 2013; Welp & Brown, 2014). According to Yang and colleagues (2019), ‘self-compassion involves treating oneself with kindness rather than harsh judgment, viewing imperfection as an inherent part of shared human experience rather than seeing them as isolating, and being mindful of painful feelings rather than over-identifying with them’ (p. 2035). Since one primary component of self-compassion involves feeling connected to the wider human experience of suffering without isolating and separating oneself (Neff, 2003), self-compassionate students should be able to perceive and respond sensitively to their own and others’ suffering. Therefore, self-compassion improves different elements of empathy and provides special qualities of being motivated by love, forgiveness, and kindness (Sinclair et al., 2017). For example, in a sample of 384 college undergraduates, higher levels of self-compassion were significantly related to greater perspective taking as a subscale of empathy (Neff & Pommier, 2013). Among 253 young adults from two Australian universities, all three positive self-compassion subscales - self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness were significantly positively associated with empathy (Lyvers et al., 2020). Similarly, cognitive empathy is positively related to self-compassion among adolescent students (Marshall et al., 2020). From the arguments and evidence above, we assumed that self-compassion is significantly positively correlated with empathy.
Self-esteem as a mediator in the relationship between self-compassion and empathy
To the best of our knowledge, no recent studies have examined self-esteem as a mediator in the link between self-compassion and empathy. Nonetheless, our research hypothesized that self-esteem mediates the relationship between self-compassion and empathy. Self-esteem refers to an individual’s overall positive evaluation of the self, including two different components: competence and worth (Cast & Burke, 2002; Rosenberg et al., 1995) and increasing from adolescence (Orth & Robins, 2014). Cross-sectional and experimental studies have supported a positive correlation between self-esteem and empathy (e.g., Huang et al., 2019; Sa et al., 2019; Stotland & Dunn, 1963). In particular, at the University of Washington, undergraduate students with high self-esteem were more empathetic towards someone who worked on similar tasks (Stotland & Dunn, 1963). This finding suggests that students with high degrees of self-esteem are less preoccupied with themselves and more likely to “lose themselves” in other people (Stotland & Dunn, 1963, p. 539). Sa et al. (2019) also found a positive relationship between self-esteem and empathy in all 515 freshmen. In a cross-sectional study of 1690 medical students in Shanghai, self-esteem positively correlated with empathy (Huang et al., 2019). Similarly, according to Social Identity theory (Tajfel & Turner, 2004), individuals' self-esteem emerges from the social group to which they live and feel belonging to. Moreover, if individuals tend to have a good perception of the group, especially group members, they can have more empathy and positive emotions (e.g., happiness, optimism, and pride). In this situation, self-esteem may positively correlate with empathy.
However, various studies have suggested that self-compassion and self-esteem are positively correlated (Barry et al., 2015; Reilly et al., 2014; Souza & Hutz, 2016). Theoretically, self-compassion is based on feelings, concerns, and non-judgmental comprehension of oneself and others, whereas self-esteem is based on positive self–evaluation (Neff & Vonk, 2009). Neff (2003) also revealed that self-compassion and self-esteem are equivalent predictors of happiness, optimism and positively impact mental health. For instance, students with high levels of compassion and self-esteem experience fewer negative emotions when receiving bad feedback (Leary et al., 2007). This means that self-compassion could be positively correlated with self-esteem as both contribute to reducing negative feelings (Donald et al., 2018; Reilly et al., 2014). Empirically, the ‘self-compassion-as-antecedent’ model suggests that self-compassion is highly associated with self-esteem (Souza & Hutz, 2016). In other words, self-compassionate individuals have a forgiving attitude toward their faults and failures (Neff et al., 2005), and such forgiveness is found to lead to less negative self-evaluations, such as social comparison and self-rumination, thus enhancing therefore self-esteem (Neff & Vonk, 2009). Similarly, Reilly and colleagues (2014) revealed that higher levels of self-compassion were positively correlated with higher self-esteem in male students with lower trait shame. This finding suggests that men who are self-compassionate have a higher sense of self-esteem than those who do not forgive their faults. Similarly, Barry and colleagues (2015) found that self-compassion signals “a relatively secure and positive sense of self”, which demonstrated a significant positive association with self-esteem in a sample of 251 male adolescents (p. 122). In summary, self-compassion predicts self-esteem, which in turn can promote empathy. Thus, self-esteem can play a mediating role in the relationship between self-compassion and empathy.
In the current study
In this study, self-esteem was hypothesized to be a mediator in the link between self-compassion and empathy. According to Self-compassion theory, self-compassion is conceptualized as to include three main elements: (i) to enrich feelings of caring and kindness towards oneself; to acknowledge that suffering is a common part of the human condition; and to believe that oneself and others deserve kindness and understanding (Neff, 2003). Being caring and kind to oneself protects individuals against their engagement in (positive or negative) self-evaluation or conformity to ideal standards to consider themselves acceptable, which may maintain positive self-esteem (Neff, 2003). Moreover, the notion that all humans suffer and deserve human kindness is inherent in self-compassion, which may motivate compassionate responses towards others (e.g, empathy) (Neff, 2003). The Self-compassion theory has also acknowledged that gender can affect the above variables (self-compassion, self-esteem, and empathy) (Neff, 2003). Additionally, several studies have indicated that gender influences self-compassion (Neff, 2003), self-esteem (Bleidorn et al., 2016; Helwig et al., 2017; Orth et al., 2012, 2014), and empathy (Christov-Moore et al., 2014). From the above studies and theories, gender can be a factor that impacts the aforementioned variables. This is why gender was controlled for in our hypothesized model to examine the relationships among self-compassion, self-esteem and empathy.
Hypothesis 1: Self-compassion is positively associated with empathy.
Hypothesis 2: Self-esteem will mediate the relationship between self-compassion and empathy.