# Associations Among Depression, Self‐Compassion, and Learning Burnout in Nursing Students: A Three‐Wave Longitudinal Study

## TL;DR

This study finds that self-compassion helps reduce depression and learning burnout in nursing students over time.

## Contribution

This is the first longitudinal study examining the temporal relationships between depression, self-compassion, and learning burnout in nursing students.

## Key findings

- Self-compassion unidirectionally and negatively predicts depression.
- Learning burnout unidirectionally and positively predicts depression.
- Self-compassion mediates the relationship between learning burnout and depression.

## Abstract

Previous cross‐sectional research shows that there were significant associations between depression, self‐compassion, and learning burnout. However, no longitudinal research has explored the temporal associations among depression, self‐compassion, and learning burnout in nursing students. The present study aimed to examine the temporal relationships among depression, self‐compassion, and learning burnout and to explore the longitudinal mediating role of self‐compassion between depression and learning burnout among nursing students.

This is a three‐wave longitudinal study. Undergraduate nursing students (N = 494) from three medical universities in China participated in this study and completed online questionnaires three times in October of 2019, 2020, and 2021, respectively. Online questionnaires, including the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale‐21 (DASS‐21) depression subscale, the 26‐item Self‐Compassion Scale (SCS), the learning burnout scale (LBS), and demographic information. IBM SPSS (version 22.0) and Mplus (version 8.3) were used for data analyses.

Among nursing students, self‐compassion unidirectionally and negatively predicted depression, while learning burnout unidirectionally and positively predicted depression. The temporal relationship between self‐compassion and learning burnout was reciprocal and negative. Self‐compassion longitudinally mediated the relationship between learning burnout and depression.

Learning burnout may lead to depression among nursing students. As a psychological resource, self‐compassion longitudinally negatively predicted both learning burnout and depression and could buffer the negative impact of learning burnout on depression. It is recommended that nursing educators identify and implement effective interventions to enhance nursing students’ self‐compassion to help them combat learning burnout and depression.