Emotional abuse, emotional neglect, and psychological wellbeing among Chinese college students: the mediating role of self-compassion and the moderating role of social support

Emotional neglect and emotional abuse are two common forms of adverse childhood experiences. To examine their associations with university students' psychological wellbeing, the indirect association through self-compassion, and the moderating role of social support, the present study conducted a cross-sectional survey using convenience sampling. A total of 705 undergraduate students from six universities in Fujian Province, China, completed the Short Form of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ-SF), the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS), the Perceived Social Support Scale (PSSS), and the Scales of Psychological Well-Being (SPWB). Results showed that: (1) both emotional neglect and emotional abuse were significantly negatively associated with university students' psychological wellbeing; (2) self-compassion showed a significant indirect association in the relation of both forms of maltreatment to psychological wellbeing; when the other form of maltreatment was simultaneously included, the indirect associations via self-compassion remained significant for both, whereas the direct association for emotional abuse was not significant; (3) the direction of the moderating effect of social support was opposite to that predicted by the stress-buffering hypothesis, and the individual interaction terms were not robust when both forms of maltreatment were entered simultaneously; the moderating effect may primarily operate on the arithmetic average of the standardized neglect and abuse scores ( S ), rather than on the difference between them ( D ). Given the cross-sectional design and convenience sampling, these findings do not support causal interpretation. Future studies could adopt longitudinal or experimental designs to examine whether interventions designed to enhance self-compassion can improve psychological wellbeing among university students.