TY - JOUR
T1 - Trajectories of self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness during the COVID-19 pandemic
T2 - A person-oriented multi-trajectory approach
AU - Wollast, Robin
AU - Lacourse, Éric
AU - Mageau, Geneviève A.
AU - Pelletier-Dumas, Mathieu
AU - Dorfman, Anna
AU - Dupéré, Véronique
AU - Lina, Jean Marc
AU - Stolle, Dietlind
AU - de la Sablonnière, Roxane
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Wollast et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PY - 2023/12/1
Y1 - 2023/12/1
N2 - The COVID-19 pandemic has produced unprecedented changes in the lives of many people. Although research has documented associations between concerns related to COVID-19 and poor mental health indicators, fewer studies have focused on positive factors that could help people better cope with this stressful social context. To fill this gap, the present research investigated the trajectories of self-compassion facets in times of dramatic social change. Using a longitudinal research design, we described the trajectories of self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness during the first eight months of the COVID-19 pandemic, in a representative sample of Canadian adults (N = 3617). Relying on a multi-trajectory group-based approach, we identified clusters of individuals following persistently low (4.0%), moderate-low (39.3%), moderate-high (46.7%), and high (10.0%) levels of self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness. Interestingly, we found that compassionate self-responding trajectories were mainly stable over time with minor fluctuations for some groups of individuals, in line with the epidemiological situation. In terms of covariates, we observed that older women were more likely to follow trajectories of high compassionate self-responding, as compared to the other age and gender groups. In terms of mental health indicators, we demonstrated that trajectory groups with high levels of compassionate self-responding were associated with greater life satisfaction, more happiness, better sleep quality, higher sleep quantity, and fewer negative emotions, as compared to lower trajectory groups. The results supported the idea that self-compassion during the COVID-19 pandemic could have favored better mental health indicators and could possibly be promoted as a psychological intervention in the general population.
AB - The COVID-19 pandemic has produced unprecedented changes in the lives of many people. Although research has documented associations between concerns related to COVID-19 and poor mental health indicators, fewer studies have focused on positive factors that could help people better cope with this stressful social context. To fill this gap, the present research investigated the trajectories of self-compassion facets in times of dramatic social change. Using a longitudinal research design, we described the trajectories of self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness during the first eight months of the COVID-19 pandemic, in a representative sample of Canadian adults (N = 3617). Relying on a multi-trajectory group-based approach, we identified clusters of individuals following persistently low (4.0%), moderate-low (39.3%), moderate-high (46.7%), and high (10.0%) levels of self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness. Interestingly, we found that compassionate self-responding trajectories were mainly stable over time with minor fluctuations for some groups of individuals, in line with the epidemiological situation. In terms of covariates, we observed that older women were more likely to follow trajectories of high compassionate self-responding, as compared to the other age and gender groups. In terms of mental health indicators, we demonstrated that trajectory groups with high levels of compassionate self-responding were associated with greater life satisfaction, more happiness, better sleep quality, higher sleep quantity, and fewer negative emotions, as compared to lower trajectory groups. The results supported the idea that self-compassion during the COVID-19 pandemic could have favored better mental health indicators and could possibly be promoted as a psychological intervention in the general population.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85174817600&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0292522
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0292522
M3 - Article
C2 - 38109431
AN - SCOPUS:85174817600
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 18
JO - PLoS ONE
JF - PLoS ONE
IS - 12 December
M1 - e0292522
ER -