Professor Adrián Pérez Aranda presents research on the role of self-compassion in psychological well-being at the ACBS World Conference 2026
Professor Adrián Pérez Aranda, from the Department of Clinical and Health Psychology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), participated in the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science (ACBS) World Conference 2026, held in Lyon, France, where he presented a scientific poster on the relationship between self-esteem, self-compassion, and well-being.
The study, recently published in Europe's Journal of Psychology, examines the role played by different dimensions of self-compassion in the association between self-esteem and psychological well-being. The findings show that not all components of self-compassion have the same impact. Specifically, the dimensions related to emotionally connecting with one's own suffering, tolerating difficult emotions, and taking action to alleviate distress were the strongest contributors to the relationship between healthy self-esteem and greater well-being.
The research was conducted with a sample of more than 400 Italian secondary school and university health sciences students. In addition to confirming the sound psychometric properties of the Italian version of the Sussex-Oxford Compassion Scales (SOCS), the study used mediation analyses to identify which specific facets of self-compassion are most relevant for promoting psychological well-being. Together, these dimensions accounted for approximately 39% of the variance in well-being, whereas exclusively cognitive components did not show a significant effect.
These findings reinforce the importance of psychological interventions aimed at developing self-compassion skills, particularly those designed to foster more adaptive emotional and behavioral responses to suffering. The authors highlight that strengthening these capacities may help improve well-being while complementing traditional approaches focused solely on enhancing self-esteem.