Well-Being and Self-Compassion : A study on the relationship between well-being and self-compassion in a Cuban sample

Abstract: Well-being is a human goal globally and has been considered so since the early days of philosophical thought. As the science of well-being has grown the last decades, well-being has widely been agreed to consist of two core components: Hedonic well-being and Eudaimonic well-being. These components have been studied to a large extent and further explored, conceptualized, and divided. How components of well-being interrelate is still being explored, as well of what drivers there are of experiencing well-being.Self-compassion is a relatively new field within psychology and cognitive neuroscience research which has been linked to components of well-being. Thus, the first aim of this study was to provide a theoretical overview of previous studies of the relationship between well-being and self-compassion. As research of self-compassion is still in its infancy, there are yet very few studies on self-compassion and its relationship to well-being in different cultures. The concept stems from East-Asian culture, and if self-compassion is important for well-being globally, or if it is depending on difference in culture, has been discussed. Hence, the second aim was to explore if there would be a potential relationship between self-compassion and well-being in a Cuban sample, as there is a lack of research in that region. 200 university students in Havana participated and filled in a questionnaire regarding subjective well-being, psychological well-being, and self-compassion. Results revealed that there was a significant relationship between well-being and self-compassion, and especially between psychological well-being and self-compassion. Components of well-being correlated with each other as well. These results go in line with previous research. Hence the present study suggests that the patterns of correlations between self-compassion and well-being is similar in Cuban university students as in other cultures studied so far.