This page was translated automatically from Turkish. Read the original

This page is an AI-assisted Turkish summary of the study presented at the 26th World Congress of Psychiatry. The study belongs to the presenting authors; please refer to the original source when citing it.

SO364

Longitudinal associations between self-compassion and changes in health behaviors among Japanese employees with subthreshold mental health problems

LONGITUDINAL ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN SELF-COMPASSION AND HEALTH BEHAVIOR CHANGES AMONG JAPANESE EMPLOYEES WITH SUBTHRESHOLD MENTAL HEALTH STATUS

Baseline self-compassion significantly predicted longer sleep duration, lower insomnia severity, and more frequent fruit and vegetable consumption 1.5 years later.

The study aimed to examine the longitudinal association between self-compassion and health behaviors among employees with subthreshold mental health problems. Two online survey waves were conducted over 18 months between 2023 and 2025 in Japan, and 891 employees (391 men, 500 women; mean age 40.37 ± 8.86) were included in the analysis. Mental health status was measured using the K6 (Kessler et al., 2002), and self-compassion using the Self-Compassion Scale (Neff, 2003); participants with K6 scores of 13 or higher were excluded, as this threshold indicates clinically significant psychological distress. Sleep duration, insomnia severity (Bastien et al., 2001), fruit and vegetable consumption, physical activity, and alcohol and smoking habits were assessed at both time points. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to test whether baseline self-compassion predicted health behaviors 1.5 years later, controlling for age, sex, marital status, work arrangement, weekly working hours, and baseline health behavior scores. In the first step, baseline self-compassion significantly predicted sleep duration (β=0.123, p<0.001), insomnia severity (β=-0.285, p<0.001), and frequency of fruit and vegetable consumption (β=0.179, p<0.001). These associations remained significant after adjustment for all control variables (sleep duration β=0.081, p=0.002; insomnia severity β=-0.135, p<0.001; frequency of fruit and vegetable consumption β=0.130, p<0.001); adjusted R-squared values in the second step were 0.403, 0.433, and 0.259, respectively. Results were largely consistent when health behavior change scores (Time 2 minus Time 1) were used as dependent variables (sleep duration β=0.083, p=0.007; insomnia severity β=-0.157, p<0.001; frequency of fruit and vegetable consumption β=0.131, p<0.001); no significant results were found for physical activity, alcohol consumption, or smoking. The authors suggest that self-compassion is a promising target for workplace mental health interventions as a modifiable indirect factor that may predict sleep duration, sleep quality, and diet quality.

All WCP 2026 summaries