Background Self-compassion is the process of treating oneself kindly especially when suffering. Self-compassion is associated with decreased symptoms of burnout in nurses such that those high in self-compassion are less likely to report emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a reduced sense of personal accomplishment. Objectives The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among self-compassion, burnout, job satisfaction, and sleep quality. Method and Participants: Recruited from MTurk, a final sample of 158 nurses living in the United States (57.6% female) completed indices of self-compassion, burnout, and outcomes of satisfaction and sleep via an online survey. Results Self-compassion was positively associated with satisfaction and sleep quality and negatively associated with burnout. In addition, increased burnout was associated with lower satisfaction and poorer sleep quality. Mediational models suggested that the relationships between self-compassion and outcomes were accounted for by the shared variance between self-compassion and burnout. Conclusions The results showed the predicted associations among self-compassion, burnout, and outcomes. Importantly, self-compassion was associated with lower burnout that, in turn, was associated with higher job satisfaction and better sleep. Despite the limitations of the study, these results add to the growing literature on the benefits of self-compassion for nurses for preventing and/or ameliorating symptoms of burnout.

Whereas several individual differences have been shown to predict academic and psychological outcomes among university students, it is not always clear which are most impactful, in part because many of the constructs overlap. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to examine the unique contributions of self-esteem, self-compassion, self-efficacy, and mindsets when predicting outcomes among university students. Undergraduate students (N = 214) completed an online survey including measures of the predictors as well as the outcomes of self-control, mental health, and both course and term grades. Correlations confirmed the overlap among the predictors highlighting the importance of examining the unique contributions of each. Results of multiple regression analyses showed that self-esteem and self-compassion explained unique variance in depression and anxiety over and above self-efficacy and growth mindsets. In contrast, self-efficacy and growth mindsets each significantly predicted self-control when controlling for self-esteem and self-compassion. Only self-efficacy predicted course grades. Given our results, we suggest that self-compassion and one’s beliefs about their abilities are complementary strengths for students attending university and should be considered when designing interventions to improve outcomes.