Hi! My name is Nehir, and I'm a second-year student at the University of Toronto, pursuing a B.Sc. in Psychology and Cognitive Science. My academic interests lie at the intersection of psychology, cognitive science, and mental health research.

• B.Sc., Psychology and Cognitive Science | The University of Toronto (May 2026 (Expected))

• Previous research has shown that self-compassion can reduce anxiety by alleviating self-criticism, but limited research explores gender differences (Einstein et al., 2022).
• Inspired by these questions, I investigated how self-compassion impacts anxiety in high school students and whether this relationship differs between genders.
• I used data collected by Einstein and colleagues: dataset
  • (916 participants ages 12-16 provided self-report data online in their school classrooms)
  • (Measures included the Self-Compassion Scale (Raes et al., 2011) for self-compassion and self-criticism, Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale for generalized anxiety, and self-report for gender categorized as male and female)

I analyzed these relationships using moderation analysis:

• data analysis code

• The relationship between self-compassion and anxiety levels revealed a complex, gender-dependent pattern.

• For males, higher levels of self-compassion were associated with an increase in anxiety, contrary to the expected protective effect.

  • This surprising outcome was explained by the role of self-criticism: as self-compassion increased, so did self-criticism, suggesting that males may interpret self-compassion in a way that exacerbates their internal self-evaluative tendencies.

• For females, no significant relationship was found between self-compassion and anxiety. Additionally, self-compassion had no measurable impact on self-criticism in this group.

• These findings highlight an important gender difference in how self-compassion operates and suggest that the mechanisms underlying its effects may vary based on gender.

• Overall, the results challenge the assumption that self-compassion universally reduces anxiety and underscore the need for tailored interventions that account for gender-specific responses to self-compassion practices. For males, approaches that address the link between self-compassion and self-criticism may be particularly important to ensure its beneficial effects.