The basic goal of the study was to explore the nature and mechanisms of self-compassion through which it shapes perceived positive mental health outcomes of the adults. Using a qualitative research design fifty-one adults (26 males and 25 females) in the age range of 20–25 years were interviewed following a semi-structured interview protocol. The responses were audiotaped, transcribed verbatim and analysed using the Thematic Analysis Method. The findings revealed that self-compassion is a complex process bringing in cognitive, affective and behavioural resources for the individual. Self-compassion was found efficacious in gaining enhancement in perceived self-understanding, positive self-regard, forgiveness, resilience, hope, optimism, well-being, self-efficacy, autonomy, competence, intellectual and emotional strengths, productivity, positive emotions and decreased stress. It was also found to catalyse positive intrapersonal and interpersonal relationships. Findings imply that self-compassion provides protective and supportive strengths to affect the genesis, maintenance, consolidation and promotion of perceived positive mental health outcomes.

The study aimed to examine the impacts of self-compassion and gender on the human flourishing of the participants. Five hundred undergraduate and postgraduate students with an equal number of male and female served as the participants in the study. The age of the male participants ranged from 17 years to 25 years (M = 20.13, SD = 2.15) whereas the age of female participants spanned from 18 years to 25 years (M = 19.89, SD = 1.85). Self-Compassion Scale (Neff, 2003a) and Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (Keyes, 2005) were employed to measure the self-compassion and flourishing of the participants, respectively. The results of the study exhibited no gender differences in self-compassion and flourishing of the male and female participants. The male and female participants with low, average and high levels of self-compassion differed significantly in their evocation of mean scores of flourishing. The results of the study also evinced that scores on self-kindness, common humanity and mindfulness components of self-compassion demonstrated positive correlations with the hedonic human flourishing, social well-being, psychological well-being, eudaimonic human flourishing and overall human flourishing. Contrarily, the scores of self-judgement were found to be negatively correlated with the scores of human flourishing and its components of the male, female and all the participants. It is evident that the positive components of self-compassion were positively correlated with the different components of human flourishing. Lastly, the results of the study demonstrated that the scores on self-kindness, common humanity and mindfulness components of self-compassion accounted for significant variance in the scores of hedonic human flourishing, social well-being, psychological well-being, eudaimonic human flourishing and overall human flourishing. Conversely, the variance caused by the scores of self-judgement, isolation and over-identification parts of self-compassion in the scores of these measures was low and statistically non-significant positive. The results of the study have significant implications for the researchers, academicians, laymen, counselors and clinical psychologists. The findings of the present study have been discussed in the light of current theories of self-compassion and human flourishing. The limitations and future directions for research have also been discussed.

The study aims to examine the role of Self-Forgiveness in shaping the Human Flourishing of the adults. Two hundred fourteen participants (18 to 30 years) comprising 100 males (Mean Age = 22.15(1.61)) and 114 females (Mean Age = 22.00(1.95)) were chosen for the study. Self-forgiveness (Mudgal & Tiwari, 2017a) and Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (Keyes, 2005) were used as the tools. Self-forgiveness comprises Realization & Reparation, Guilt, Attribution and overall self-forgiveness (sum of the first three) while Human Flourishing consists of Hedonic and Eudaimonic (Social plus Psychological) Well-Being. The aggregate of Hedonic and Eudaimonic is overall Human Flourishing. The findings suggested no gender differences in Self-Forgiveness of the participants. Conversely, gender differences were observed in all the dimensions of Human Flourishing in favour of males. Irrespective of gender, Realization & Reparation was positively correlated with Hedonic, Social, Psychological and Eudaimonic Well-Being as well as Human Flourishing except for Guilt and Attribution that showed small positive or negative correlations. Irrespective of gender, Overall Self-Forgiveness correlated positively with all the dimensions of Flourishing. Gender and Realization & Reparation emerged as the significant predictors accounting for significant variance in all the dimensions of Flourishing while Guilt and Attribution did not. The findings suggested that remorse, easy acceptance of wrongdoing, repairing the relationship with self and others, ability to minimize negative emotions towards self, monitoring others’ positive behaviours and acknowledgements of valued and close relationships were the psychological mechanisms that may underlie the predictive strengths of self-forgiveness in regulating flourishing.

The study aimed to examine the impacts of metacognition and gender on the academic adjustment and academic outcome of the participants. Five hundred twenty two undergraduate and postgraduate male (M = 20.53, SD = 2.06) and female (M = 20.47, SD = 2.00) students served as the participants in the study. Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (Schraw & Dennison, 1994) and Academic Adjustment Scale (Anderson et al., 2016) were employed to measure the metacognitive awareness and academic adjustment of the participants. The results of the study exhibited no gender differences in metacognition and academic adjustment except academic achievement and academic outcome of the male and female participants. The results of the study also evinced that scores on declarative knowledge, procedural knowledge, conditional knowledge, planning, information management, monitoring, debugging, evaluation components of metacognition and overall metacognitive awareness demonstrated positive correlations with the academic achievements, overall academic adjustment and academic outcome. Contrarily, the scores of planning and evaluation were found to be negatively correlated with the scores of academic lifestyle of the male, female and all the participants. Lastly, the results of the study demonstrated that the scores on declarative knowledge, procedural knowledge, conditional knowledge, planning, information management, monitoring, debugging, evaluation components of metacognition and overall metacognitive awareness accounted for significant variance in the scores of academic life style, academic achievements, overall academic adjustment and academic outcome. The results of the study have significant implications of for researchers, academicians, laymen, counselors and school psychologists. The limitations and future directions for researchers have also been discussed.

Objective: The study explored the impacts of restrictions on the perceived psychological distress and health outcomes in children by their mothers who acted as their full-time caregivers during the pan-India lockdown after the outbreak of COVID-19. Method: A narrative qualitative research design was used and a purposive heterogeneous sample of 20 mothers of children aged 9–11 years were chosen, who were in a full-time caregiving role. Data obtained through a telephonic semi-structured interview were analysed using Narrative Thematic Method. Results: Four themes were generated: aberrant social responsivity and loneliness, decreased interest in regular activities, psychological distress and defiant emotional responses, and negative health outcomes. Anxiety, irritation, quarrelsome behaviours, anger, frustration, feeling low, reduced interest in games, boredom, etc. were reported in children. Decreased appetite, sleep disturbances, complaints of indigestion and multiple complaints of body aches were major negative health outcomes. Conclusions: Mothers described a variety of psychological distress and health outcomes for children due to the extreme restrictions, uncertainty, apprehension, reduced positive engagement and lowered social connection after the outbreak of the pandemic. Family-, media-, school- and community-based real or virtual intervention programmes are recommended to minimize the negative impacts and to guard children against the ill-consequences of restrictions of current and future pandemics.