The mediationing role of emotional autonomy and self-compassion in the relationship between perceived psychological abuse and healthy lifestyle behaviors in adolescents

This study investigates the mediating roles of emotional autonomy and self-compassion in the relationship between perceived psychological abuse and healthy lifestyle behaviors in adolescents aged between 14 and 18. In addition, the role of sociodemographic variables such as gender, age, class, perceived monthly income, presence of siblings, number of siblings, psychological/psychiatric treatment status, marital status of parents, age of parents, and education level of parents on healthy lifestyle behaviors were also examined. The study was carried out with 217 adolescents between the ages of 14-18 using snowball and convenient sampling methods. Data collection tools of the study are, respectively; The Sociodemographic Information Form prepared by the researchers, The Emotional Autonomy Scale, The Psychological Abuse Scale, The Adolescent Lifestyle Profile Scale and The Short Form of Self- Compassion Scale. In the study, mediation analysis was run to test the main hypotheses, and independent samples t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Pearson correlation analysis were conducted to evaluate sociodemographic variables. Statistical analyses revealed that there were significant relationships between perceived psychological abuse, emotional autonomy, self-compassion, and healthy lifestyle behaviors. Emotional autonomy and self-compassion fully mediated the relationship between perceived psychological abuse and healthy lifestyle behaviors. On the other hand, healthy lifestyle behaviors of adolescents differed only based on the age of the fathers among all sociodemographic variables. It was found that the level of healthy lifestyle behaviors decreased as the age of the fathers increased. The negative effects of psychological abuse on the individual are well known. This study demonstrates the protective roles of emotional autonomy and self-compassion on the negative consequences of psychological abuse in adolescents and shows that these protective factors support their engagement in positive health behaviors. The current findings were discussed in the light of the literature, and the limitations of the study and suggestions for future studies were mentioned.