Examining the relationships between self-compassion, perfectionism and experiential avoidance in traumatized university students

The aim of this study is to examine whether the levels of traumatized university students differ according to gender and time elapsed since the trauma and to test the mediating role of self-compassion in the relationship between the dimensions of perfectionism (self-critical, rigid and narcissistic perfectionism) and experiential avoidance. The sample of the study consisted of a total of 338 traumatized undergraduate university students, 228 female and 110 male. In the study by using correlational research method, Demographic Information Form, Acceptance Action Form II, Self-Compassion Scale Short Form and Big Three Perfectionism Scale Short Form were applied as data collection tools. SPSS 26 and Lisrel 8.80 software were used to analyze the data collected in the study. Independent Groups T test was used to examine how the level of experiential avoidance differs based on gender and One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to examine the change in the level of experiential avoidance according to the time elapsed since the trauma. The mediating role of self-compassion in the relationship between perfectionism and experiential avoidance was tested with the mediation model. The results showed that experiential avoidance did not differ significantly according to the gender variable and the time elapsed since the trauma. As a result of the model, it was determined that self-critical perfectionism positively predicts experiential avoidance and self-compassion negatively predicts experiential avoidance. It was determined that self-compassion only had a partial mediating role in the relationship between self-critical perfectionism and experiential avoidance.