ArticleClinical psychology & psychotherapy2021
Fears of compassion magnify the harmful effects of threat of COVID-19 on mental health and social safeness across 21 countries.
Article in Clinical psychology & psychotherapy, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 51 citations in OpenAlex.
- Experience of compassionate care in mental health and community-based services for children and young people: facilitators of, and barriers to compassionate care- a systematic review.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- The 'selves' in doping and its psychosocial mechanisms: harmonised multi-country evidence from high-performing athletes in the UK, US, and China.Harm reduction journal · 2025Article
- Validity of the Chinese Mandarin version of the compassionate engagement and action scales for self and others for nursing students.BMC nursing · 2025Article
- Kindness as a public health action.Communications medicine · 2025Review
- Development of a multicomponent survey of experiences of tragedy-based and fear-based trauma in COVID-19 healthcare professionals.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- One-year predictors of PTSD symptoms, anxiety, and depression in SARS-CoV-2 survivors: psychological flexibility and major life events as main predictive factors.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Quality of Life and Wellbeing Parameters of Academic Dental and Nursing Personnel vs. Quality of Services.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Article
- Heterogeneous Mental Health Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Germany: An Examination of Long-Term Trajectories, Risk Factors, and Vulnerable Groups.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Improvements in Compassion and Fears of Compassion throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Multinational Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Article
- Interoceptive anxiety-related processes: Importance for understanding COVID-19 and future pandemic mental health and addictive behaviors and their comorbidity.Behaviour research and therapy · 2022Review
- Fears of Compassion Scales: Cross-Cultural Adaptation and Validity Evidence for Use in Brazil.Trends in psychology · 2022Article
- Gender Differences in the Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Mental Health of Italian Academic Workers.Journal of personalized medicine · 2022Article
- Moderating role of compassion in the link between fear of Coronavirus disease and mental health among undergraduate students.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Article
- Compassion Protects Mental Health and Social Safeness During the COVID-19 Pandemic Across 21 Countries.Mindfulness · 2022Article
- Risk perception, treatment adherence, and personality during COVID-19 pandemic: An international study on cancer patients.Psycho-oncology · 2022Article
- Fears of compassion magnify the harmful effects of threat of COVID-19 on mental health and social safeness across 21 countries.Clinical psychology & psychotherapy · 2021Article
- Article
- The role of social connection on the experience of COVID-19 related post-traumatic growth and stress.PloS one · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
44 authors at 20 institutions in 17 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic is a massive global health crisis with damaging consequences to mental health and social relationships. Exploring factors that may heighten or buffer the risk of mental health problems in this context is thus critical. Whilst compassion may be a protective factor, in contrast fears of compassion increase vulnerability to psychosocial distress and may amplify the impact of the pandemic on mental health. This study explores the magnifying effects of fears of compassion on the impact of perceived threat of COVID-19 on depression, anxiety and stress, and social safeness.
methodsAdult participants from the general population (N = 4057) were recruited across 21 countries worldwide, and completed self-report measures of perceived threat of COVID-19, fears of compassion (for self, from others, for others), depression, anxiety, stress and social safeness.
resultsPerceived threat of COVID-19 predicted increased depression, anxiety and stress. The three flows of fears of compassion predicted higher levels of depression, anxiety and stress and lower social safeness. All fears of compassion moderated (heightened) the impact of perceived threat of COVID-19 on psychological distress. Only fears of compassion from others moderated the effects of likelihood of contracting COVID-19 on social safeness. These effects were consistent across all countries.
conclusionsFears of compassion have a universal magnifying effect on the damaging impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health and social safeness. Compassion focused interventions and communications could be implemented to reduce resistances to compassion and promote mental wellbeing during and following the pandemic.
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