ORCID
https://orcid.org/0009-0000-2599-5209
Date of Award
Fall 2027
Language
English
Embargo Period
9-15-2026
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
College/School/Department
Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology
Program
Counseling Psychology
First Advisor
M. Dolores Cimini
Committee Members
Rachel Brenner, Kimberly Colvin
Keywords
self-compassion, self-coldness, resource abundance, prosocial coping, mental health, college students, depression, well-being, Theory of Social Mentalities
Subject Categories
Counseling Psychology
Abstract
Undergraduate students increasingly present to college counseling centers with pre-existing mental health concerns, including depression and suicidal ideation, emphasizing the urgent need for effective interventions and a deeper understanding of contributing factors. Self-compassion—responding kindly to oneself amid suffering—and its theorized counterpart, self-coldness—characterized by self-judgment and isolation—have emerged as key constructs influencing mental health. The two-factor model of self-compassion, grounded in Gilbert’s (2005a) Theory of Social Mentalities (TSM), posits that self-compassion and self-coldness are distinct unipolar continua shaped by evolved safeness and threat-defense systems that regulate social behaviors and mental health outcomes. The present study examines the mediating role of prosocial coping behavior in the relationship between self-relating (self-compassion and self-coldness) and mental health outcomes (depression and well-being), while exploring the moderating effect of current perceived resource abundance. Using data from the 2015-2016 Healthy Minds Study, the sample includes 1,710 college students (predominantly White and female). Multi-group latent path analysis revealed that prosocial coping partially mediated relationships between self-compassion and both depression and psychological flourishing consistent with TSM, while indirect effects through self-coldness were significant but opposite to those hypothesized. Formal moderated mediation criteria were not met; however, the non-trivial group differences identified, including a near-zero self-coldness to prosocial coping path under scarcity and an amplified buffering effect of prosocial coping on depression, were directionally consistent with TSM. Findings support treating self-compassion and self-coldness as distinct constructs with implications for Compassion-Focused Therapy in college counseling contexts.
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Ozmat, Evan E., "The Moderating Role of Perceived Resource Abundance in the Links Between Self-Compassion, Self-Coldness, Coping Strategies, and Mental Health" (2027). Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present). 550.
https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/etd/550