Longitudinal associations between capacity to be alone, life satisfaction, self-compassion, anxiety, and depression among Chinese college students

Although the world has entered the post-pandemic period, the mental health and life satisfaction of college students still need to be addressed. However, previous literature has primarily focused on negative variables and has paid little attention to positive variables, such as self-compassion and the capacity to be alone. Therefore, this longitudinal study aims to investigate the relationships between the capacity to be alone, self-compassion, life satisfaction, depression, and anxiety among college students. This study analyzed data from 1460 Chinese college students who completed an online survey at two time-points one year apart. We employed cross-lagged analysis and constructed longitudinal mediation models to explore the relationships between five variables (i.e., capacity to be alone, self-compassion, life satisfaction, depression, and anxiety). Our findings indicate that depression and life satisfaction could negatively predict each other over time. Self-compassion in wave 1 could negatively predict depression and anxiety in wave 2. Higher life satisfaction in wave 1 was associated with a lower capacity to be alone in wave 2. We also found reciprocal positive predictive relationships between depression and anxiety, and life satisfaction and self-compassion. Life satisfaction mediated the relationship between self-compassion and psychopathological variables (i.e., depression and anxiety). Additionally, self-compassion mediated the association between life satisfaction and psychopathological variables and the association between capacity to be alone and psychopathological variables. Our study highlights the significance of early identification and intervention in depression and anxiety. We also discovered the possible self-soothing function of self-compassion as well as the importance of fostering positive personal characteristics.