Along with the rise and popularity of positive psychology, researchers widely consider mindfulness as a positive protective factor and a key variable in individual development. Mindfulness impacts individual mental health and well-being, particularly under environmental change, and mindfulness is a strong predictor of individual positive adaptation outcomes. College students face multiple internal and external risks during the COVID-19 lockdown. Mindfulness is a positive psychological resource and trait, which is considered an important protective factor in the development of life and various outcomes (Huang et al., 2021b). Mindfulness can increase positive qualities such as awareness, insight, wisdom, compassion, and serenity (Kabat-Zinn, 2000; Goldstein, 2002), which protects mental health. Therefore, college students should be cared for and supported to overcome the COVID-19 crisis by focusing on their mindfulness (Tran et al., 2022). Some scholars have argued that mindfulness is a trait that improves with practice or experience. According to their findings, there are four types of mindfulness: traits, states, training, and treatment. Mindfulness was viewed as a stabilizing quality in this study (Chiesa, 2013; Good et al., 2016). Dispositional mindfulness is defined as a person’s ability and proclivity to maintain mindfulness in daily life, to adopt a nonjudgmental and accepting attitude, and to focus on thoughts and feelings in the present moment (Brown and Ryan, 2003). They are extremely important psychological resources for helping people cope with stress and adversity (Dixon and Overall, 2016), and people develop long-term changes in cognitive, emotional, or behavioral tendencies (Bajaj et al., 2016).

In isolation conditions, one of the most important indicators of individual health is mental health, which is defined as a state of optimal human functioning beyond the experience of well-being [for example, Ryff and Keyes, 1995]. Because mindfulness is achieved by focusing attention on immediate experience, people recognize that thoughts and emotions are mental events, not facts, and can change mental habits such as anxiety and depression. Recent research has reported that dispositional mindfulness is negatively associated with anxiety and depression (Lam et al., 2020) and can effectively improve individual subjective well-being and mental health (Nyklíček et al., 2011).

According to the Dual-factor Model of Mental Health, when describing the level of young people’s mental health, the assessment indicators should include both positive subjective well-being and negative psychopathological symptoms (Greenspoon and Saklofske, 2001; Eklund et al., 2010). Among the positive indicators, the predecessors used life satisfaction to assess subjective well-being (Diener et al., 1985; Huppert, 2009). Satisfaction with life is a standard to evaluate individual positive psychological status as a core index to measure individual happiness and quality of life (Cowen, 1994). Anxiety and depression have been the most commonly used negative psychological indicators in previous research (American Psychiatric Association, 2000; Greenspoon and Saklofske, 2001; Merrell, 2008; Eklund et al., 2010; Hides et al., 2020). This study assessed people’s mental health using life satisfaction, anxiety and depression (Wang et al., 2016).

Self-compassion has been described as being kind to oneself in the face of difficulties and failures, being able to accept one’s shortcomings and deficiencies, being able to assess oneself objectively, and being kind and caring when one is sad and depressed (Neff, 2003a, 2009).

Some studies have reported that mindfulness and self-compassion are positively correlated, with mindfulness being a source and inner exploration of self. People who have high levels of self-compassion have a more balanced and objective view of negative life events, so they often experience fewer negative emotions (Neff, 2009). When people with high self-compassion face their own shortcomings, they tend to adopt a friendly and enthusiastic manner that can enhance their positive emotional and subjective well-being (Hollis-Walker and Colosimo, 2011). Self-compassion has been shown to have a positive impact on the mental health and well-being of adults (e.g., nurses) COVID-19 (Gerace, 2022).

A cohort study from Saudi Arabia showed that being female during the COVID-19 lockdown was significantly correlated with a higher likelihood of Emergency Department (Ed) visits for mental health disorders compared to male dominance before the COVID-19 pandemic (Ramadan et al., 2022). During the COVID-19 pandemic, female college students are more at risk for symptoms of depression and anxiety, and their negative emotions are positively associated with depression and anxiety (Carlucci et al., 2020; Mazza et al., 2020). Previous research has found a link between gender, dispositional mindfulness, and comorbid symptoms of psychopathology, with males having a higher level of dispositional mindfulness than females in a sample of undergraduates (Wang and Chopel, 2020). Subgroup analyses revealed that female college students had a higher overall morbidity of depressive symptoms than male college students, and there were differences in the morbidity of anxiety and depressive symptoms in college students from different countries (Chang et al., 2021).

According to previous research on self-compassion and adolescent development, as adolescents undergo significant physiological changes, there are significant gender differences in self-compassion, with female adolescents exhibiting lower levels of self-compassion than male adolescents of the same age. Gender is associated with an increase in psychopathological symptoms such as anxiety and depression (Copeland et al., 2011). Gender moderates the relationship between self-compassion and anxiety and depression symptoms, and self-compassion has a greater protective effect on anxiety and depression in male college students than in female college students (Galla, 2016).

This sample contained 34% males and 66% females. Participants ranged in age from 17 to 24 years (M-age = 20.12; SD-age = 1.17), with 4.2% in freshmen, 15.6% in sophomores, 44.1% in juniors, and 36.1% in seniors (see Table 1).

Pearson’s correlation coefficient matrix, mean, and standard deviation of all variables are shown in Table 2. Pearson’s correlation coefficient test revealed that dispositional mindfulness was significantly positively correlated with self-compassion and mental health (p < 0.01). Further, there was a significant positive correlation between self-compassion and mental health (p < 0.01). It can be seen that the relationship between variables in this study has been preliminarily confirmed, and the research hypothesis can be further tested.

Table 3 testing the mediation role of self-compassion.

First, Hayes’ Model 4 of the PROCESS program was used to examine the mediating effect of self-compassion between dispositional mindfulness and mental health (Hayes, 2013). Taking into account covariates such as residential location, age and grade, status as an only child, meditation or not, the table revealed that dispositional mindfulness scores positively predicted self-compassion (β = 0.414, t = 15.451, p < 0.001) and mental health (β = 0.288, t = 15.811, p < 0.001). Controlling the independent variable dispositional mindfulness, self-compassion positively predicted mental health (β = 0.312, t = 16.438, p < 0.001). Hypothesis 1 is tested.

Second, Table 4 demonstrated that self-compassion partially mediates the effect between dispositional mindfulness and mental health, since both the direct effect of dispositional mindfulness on mental health and the mediating role of self-compassion did not contain 0 within Bootstrap 95% confidence intervals. These direct (0.159) and mediating (0.129) roles accounted for 55 and 45% of the total effect (0.288), respectively. Hypothesis 2 is tested.

In the study, to test a moderated mediation model, we run the PROCESS macro (Model 59) (Hayes, 2013) to test the moderating effect of self-compassion. After gender was included in the model, dispositional mindfulness significantly predicted self-compassion (β = 0.418, t = 15.898, p < 0.001) (Table 5). The interaction term between dispositional mindfulness and gender (a × b) was a significant positive predictor of self-compassion (β = 0.353, t = 6.530, p < 0.001). Dispositional mindfulness was a significant positive predictor of mental health (β = 0.144, t = 7.746, p < 0.001), as was self-compassion (β = 0.312, t = 15.826, p < 0.001). The interaction term (a × b) between dispositional mindfulness and gender was an important predictor of mental health with significant predictive effects (β = 0.108, t = 2.499, p < 0.05). The interaction term between gender and self-compassion (b × c) is a significant predictor of mental health (β = 0.198, t = 4.382, p < 0.001).

The indirect effects of mindfulness on self-compassion and self-compassion on mental health in all genders (see Table 5) are both significant. For females, the 95% confidence interval does not include 0 [0.051, 0.098], and the effect value was 0.073; for males, the 95% confidence interval does not contain 0 [0.247, 0.331], and the effect value was 0.288. Furthermore, the difference in indirect effects between high and low does not contain 0, indicating that the mediating effect is significant. These findings indicated that gender is enhanced by mindfulness and the indirect role of self-compassion on mental health, and when gender is male, the mediating effect is more substantial. Hypothesis 3 is tested.

The values of the direct effect of dispositional mindfulness, the values of the mediating effect of self-compassion, and the bootstrap 95% confidence intervals are shown in Table 6. The dispositional mindfulness value has an important positive predictive effect on self-compassion in male students (β = 0.650, t = 14.581, p < 0.001). The female students’ dispositional mindfulness score had an important positive predictive effect on self-compassion (β = 0.298, t = 9.360, p < 0.001), but the female students’ self-compassion increased at a slower rate as their dispositional mindfulness scores increased than males (see Figure 2).

Dispositional mindfulness had a significant positive predictive role on male students’ mental health (β = 0.215, t = 5.635, p < 0.001). Simultaneously, dispositional mindfulness in females was a significant positive predictor of mental health (β = 0.108, t = 5.635, p < 0.001). However, as dispositional mindfulness increased, females’ mental health scores increased more slowly than those of male college students (see Figure 3).

The positive predictive role of self-compassion on the mental health of male students is significant (β = 0.443, t = 10.967, p < 0.001), and self-compassion of female students has a significant positive predictive role on mental health (β = 0.245, t = 11.664, p < 0.001). However, as self-compassion increased, females’ mental health improved more slowly than those of male college students (see Figure 4).

In general, gender has a significant moderating effect on dispositional mindfulness, self-compassion, and mental health. This observation suggests that dispositional mindfulness and self-compassion have a stronger protective and buffering effect in male college students than in females during the COVID-19 lockdown.

There is ample evidence that dispositional mindfulness is a positive and protective resource for medicine, health care, and psychology (Batchelor, 1994), as it is associated with greater subject well-being and involves less depression and anxiety (Brown and Ryan, 2003). Furthermore, our findings support the findings of systematic reviews and meta-analyses that show mindfulness significantly affects depressive and anxiety symptoms (Strauss et al., 2014; Chu et al., 2018). Dispositional mindfulness has also been found to be a good predictor of self-compassion, depression, anxiety, and subjective well-being in nonclinical populations under COVID-19 lockdown conditions (Conversano et al., 2020). Regarding the relationship between mindfulness and mental health, our results support the Buddhist theory of mindfulness (Batchelor, 1994; Shapiro et al., 2006; Brown et al., 2007), which as a traditional Buddhist teaching, is the core intention of mindfulness. It is believed that mindfulness assists in cultivating the loving mind or bodhicitta and transforming unhealthy and unskilled traits into wholesome and skillful traits for the benefit of all beings (Gethin, 1992/2001). It has also been found that high levels of optimism mindfulness correlate with high levels of self-compassion (Duarte and Pinto-Gouveia, 2017); also, mindfulness can effectively improve individual self-compassion (Eklund et al., 2010), stabilize individual attention and calm mind (called Shamatha in Sanskrit; Bodhi, 2011), and achieve true inner transformation by deliberately choosing and focusing on positive mental states to promote happiness and achieve mental health (Lama and Cutler, 1998). Therefore, universities and psychotherapists can use dispositional mindfulness as an important tool to assist students in combating potential anxiety and depression and increasing happiness during the COVID-19 pandemic (González-García et al., 2021; Huang et al., 2021a).

Previous interventions have shown that mindfulness treatment can promote mental health, suggesting that mindfulness-targeted treatment is most useful in epidemics or crises. Individuals’ level of self-compassion is related to their mental health. Individuals with high levels of self-compassion will improve their defense mechanisms and be better at motivating their positive behavior (Pace et al., 2009). Based on previous studies, this research illustrated the mediating effect of self-compassion on dispositional mindfulness toward mental health. It confirmed the protective role of individual self-compassion and dispositional mindfulness on mental health during the COVID-19 lockdown. Therefore, self-compassion training may be a useful intervention strategy for maintaining mental health. According to our findings, self-compassion improves subjective well-being, is associated with higher life satisfaction, and reduces symptoms of depression and anxiety (Bluth and Blanton, 2015), providing an optimistic link to subjective well-being (Baer et al., 2012). Our findings add to the growing body of evidence that self-compassion mediates the relationship between dispositional mindfulness and mental health (Voci et al., 2019), and that increased self-compassion can help to demonstrate the role of mindfulness in mental health. In other words, self-compassion, consistent with our hypothesis, is an important mechanism explaining why and how mindfulness is associated with better mental health, and self-compassion plays an important role in mental health protection (Neff and Pommier, 2013). Students with a high degree of self-compassion will improve their defense mechanisms, motivate positive behaviors (Pace et al., 2009) and adopt a more positive coping style (Leary et al., 2007) when faced with the lockdown. College students with high levels of self-compassion tend to confront their shortcomings with friendliness and warmth, and it may improve an individual’s subjective well-being (Hollis-Walker and Colosimo, 2011). They also understand negative life events more objectively and use positive coping strategies to reduce anxiety and depression (Van Dam et al., 2011; Neff et al., 2018). College students with low self-compassion will be overly immersed in coronavirus-induced stress due to their numbness and loneliness associated with criticism, depression, anxiety, and other negative psychological symptoms (Van Dam et al., 2011), leading to increased unhappiness and negative psychological symptoms.

Overall, our findings confirm our predictions. Individuals with dispositional mindfulness have a higher degree of self-compassion and tend to have higher subject well-being (Schutte and Malouff, 2011; Chen et al., 2017; Liang et al., 2022), but it is negatively related to anxiety and depression (Dillard and Meier, 2021). As expected, self-compassion mediated the relationship between dispositional mindfulness and well-being. Whether or not college students meditate, the mechanisms between dispositional mindfulness, self-compassion, and subjective well-being were equally significant. This suggests that dispositional mindfulness results from a complex interaction between explicit mindfulness training, genetic predisposition, and the environment in which personality develops (Brown et al., 2007). According to the study, people with high dispositional mindfulness scores included both meditators and non-meditators (whose dispositional mindfulness is genetically inherited). Individuals born with dispositional mindfulness may have better mental health, and self-compassion training is more likely to improve their mental health during COVID-19. Another group of college students born with less dispositional mindfulness may benefit from mindfulness and self-compassion training together, such as mindfulness self-compassion programs of the second generation mindfulness intervention.

It is well known that males and females have different mental health problems. Females tend to have more internalizing disorders than males and a higher prevalence of depression and anxiety (Rosenfield and Mouzon, 2013). There is no doubt that females are more likely to experience mental distress during the COVID-19 lockdown. To begin, our research found that gender has a moderating effect on the relationship between mindfulness and well-being and depression and anxiety in college students. Female college students are more socially sensitive than males and are more likely to contemplate a coping strategy, which leads to increased mental health symptoms (Neff, 2003b; Yuan et al., 2010; Van Droogenbroeck et al., 2018). In other words, female college students have a stronger negative correlation between dispositional mindfulness and psychological symptoms of anxiety and depression and a weaker positive correlation with well-being (Webb et al., 2021a,b). Females are more likely to experience mental distress due to the uncertainty of the epidemic, infection risk, and various stresses and shocks. Their dispositional mindfulness increases more slowly than male college students, as does their well-being. Therefore, during the COVID-19 lockdown, females with low dispositional mindfulness warrant more attention, support, and protection in the mental health education and maintenance of college students. Second, the study also found that gender plays a moderating role in the relationship between dispositional mindfulness and self-compassion in college students. With the increase in dispositional mindfulness, college students’ self-compassion will increase, but that of female students will increase more slowly than male college students; that is, when the COVID-19 lockdown brings life and psychological discomfort, female students are more prone to self-criticism and being isolated. Males have greater self-compassion and common humanity, and they recover faster. That is, gender not only modifies college student attitudes toward mindfulness and self-compassion, but it also modifies the relationship between self-compassion and mental health. Compared to the protective effects of self-compassion on the mental health of male college students, the increase in well-being in female college students is slower, and the decrease in anxiety and depression is slighter during the increase in self-compassion.