The Role of Self-compassion in the Relationships among Personality Traits, Health Behaviors, and Daily Mood

Diane Lameira

Advisor: Jerome Short, PhD, Department of Psychology

Committee Members: Tara Chaplin, Tim Curby

Online Location, #2084
May 28, 2020, 11:00 AM to 01:00 PM

Abstract:

Two studies examined the daily and longitudinal interrelationships among personality traits, self-compassion, sleep duration and satisfaction, positive and negative mood, and exercise, measured with surveys and actigraphy. One-hundred-three college students completed a pre-test, daily reports for 8 days, and two follow-up surveys two weeks apart. Self-compassion positively predicted exercise satisfaction cross-sectionally and longitudinally over a two-week period. Extraversion and neuroticism were positively related to moderate exercise cross-sectionally. Additionally, extraversion was positively related to self-compassion while neuroticism was negatively related to self-compassion cross-sectionally. Finally, daytime mild and vigorous exercise predicted evening positive mood, while sleep satisfaction and duration predicted more positive mood and less negative mood the next morning. The results suggest the value of interventions to help increase college students’ self-compassion and satisfying exercise and sleep to improve their mood.