Academic motivation is recognised as a key factor for academic success and wellbeing. Highly motivated students actively engage with academic activities and maintain good wellbeing. Despite the importance of motivation in education, its relationship with engagement and wellbeing remains to be evaluated. Accordingly, this study explored the relationships between motivation, engagement, self-criticism and self-compassion among UK education postgraduate students. Of 120 postgraduate students approached, 109 completed three self-report scales regarding those constructs. Correlation, regression and moderation analyses were performed. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation were positively associated with engagement, whereas amotivation was negatively associated with it. Engagement positively predicted intrinsic motivation. Self-criticism and self-compassion moderated the pathway from extrinsic motivation to intrinsic motivation: higher self-criticism weakened the pathway, while higher self-compassion strengthened it. Findings suggest the importance of engagement in relation to cultivating intrinsic motivation of education students. Moreover, enhancing self-compassion and reducing self-criticism can help transfer extrinsic to intrinsic motivation.

Despite the well-known mental health difficulties of social work students such as high levels of mental health problems and shame, and low levels of self-compassion, effective interventions remain to be evaluated. Moreover, whilst the levels of mental health constructs vary cross-culturally, how cultures impact the mental health has not been appraised in depth. This study aimed to compare the levels of, and relationships among mental health problems, mental health shame and self-compassion between social work students in the UK and Ireland. Opportunity samples of 120 UK students and 129 Irish students completed self-report measures regarding mental health problems, shame and self-compassion. Welch t-tests, correlation and regression analyses were conducted. Levels of mental health problems and shame were lower in British students than Irish students, while self-compassion was lower in Irish students. Internal shame was most strongly related to mental health problems in British students, while self-reflected shame was so in Irish students. Self-compassion was a significant predictor of mental health problems in both groups. Cultivating self-compassion, targeting internal shame in the UK, and reflected shame in Ireland, is recommended to protect and enhance the mental health of social work students.

Issues Addressing opioid use disorder (OUD) among pregnant women is of growing importance, and substance use treatment positively impacts outcomes for mother and baby. Understanding substance use treatment experiences is important to improve access, and retention, and no review or synthesis of research addressing the treatment experiences of pregnant women exists. Approach Thus, a qualitative meta‐synthesis was conducted, which investigated the psychological motivators and barriers of pregnant women with OUD trying to access treatment and their perceptions of treatment. Key Findings A total of 3844 articles were retrieved from the literature search. Nine articles met eligibility criteria, were appraised, then synthesised using a comparative thematic approach. Four themes: (i) Embodied Experiences; (ii) Institutional Pressures; (iii) Social Context; and (iv) Reconstructing Selves; indicate that women with OUD are motivated to engage in treatment to pursue the safety and custody of the unborn baby and to pursue and enact the changes necessary to claim ‘normal’ parenthood status. Pregnant women describe psychological and relational barriers to engaging in treatment, including anxieties about the baby's health, fears of authorities' involvement, stigma and experiencing relationships with treatment providers as constrictive or invalidating. Implications Identity theory's concepts of identity verification, closed environments and master status identities illuminate the findings. Implications include recognising the salience of bodily experiences, providing medication‐assisted treatment support groups and promoting validating relationships in treatment using strengths‐based approaches. Conclusions Pregnant women face unique psychological challenges in accessing and engaging in substance use treatment for OUD.

Although students in education have high rates of mental health problems, many of them do not ask for help, which can exacerbate their symptoms. One reason for their low help-seeking is shame associated with mental health problems. As education students aspire to provide care for children, they may feel ashamed to care for themselves, as the role identity theory suggests. Self-compassion is reported to reduce shame and mental health problems. This study explored the relationships between mental health problems, mental health shame, self-compassion, and caregiver identity among UK education students. One hundred and nine postgraduate students completed four self-report scales regarding those constructs. Correlation and regression analyses were performed. Mental health problems were positively associated with shame and identity, and negatively associated with self-compassion. Self-compassion was the only significant predictor of mental health problems. Findings will help educators and education students to develop effective approaches for their mental health problems.

Self-compassion recognises a meaning of life’s suffering, aligning with existential positive psychology. Although this construct is known to protect our mental health, how to augment self-compassion remains to be evaluated. Social work students suffer from high rates of mental health problems; however, research into self-compassion in this population remains to be developed. This study aimed to evaluate (i) relationships between self-compassion and more traditional positive constructs—resilience, engagement and motivation, and (ii) differences of these constructs between the levels of studies to inform how self-compassion can be enhanced in social work students. A total of 129 Irish social work students completed self-report scales regarding self-compassion, resilience, engagement and motivation. Correlation, regression and one-way MANOVA were conducted. Self-compassion was associated with gender, age, resilience, engagement and intrinsic motivation. Resilience and intrinsic motivation were significant predictors of self-compassion. There was no significant difference in the levels of these constructs between the levels of studies. Findings suggest that social work educators across different levels can strengthen students’ resilience and intrinsic motivation to cultivate the students’ self-compassion. Moreover, the close relationships between self-compassion, resilience and intrinsic motivation indicate that orienting students to the meaning of the studies helps their mental health.