The Causal Relationship between Self-Compassion and Civic-Academic Behaviors: The Mediating Role of Parental Autonomy Support

Background and Purpose: Civic-academic behaviors provide the context of cooperation and participation in social interactions and are influenced by the antecedent variables of self-compassion and parental autonomy support. This study aimed to investigate the causal relationship between self-compassion and civic-academic behaviors with the mediating role of parental autonomy support. Method: This study was a correlational research of descriptive design. The study population consisted of all ninth and tenth grade students of Mahabad city in the academic year 2016-2017, among whom 645 students were selected by multistage cluster sampling method. The instruments of the study consisted of Neff's Self-Compassion Scale (2003), Civic-Academic Behaviors Scale (Golparvar, 2010) and Perceived Parenting Styles Survey (PPSS)) Grolnick, Deci, & Ryan, 1997). Data were analyzed by structural equation modeling and AMOS software (version 24). Results: According to the structural equation model, relationships between variables had an acceptable fit and the results showed that there was a significant relationship between self-compassion and civic-academic behaviors (p<0.01), self-compassion and parental autonomy support (p< 0.01), as well as parental autonomy support and civic-academic behaviors (p< 0.01). Findings indicate that self-compassion and parental autonomy support predict and explain 30 % of variance in civic-academic behaviors and self-compassion predicts 20% of variance in the parental autonomy support (P<0.01). Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, parental autonomy support plays a significant mediating role in the relationship between self-compassion and civic- academic behaviors and facilitates the prediction of parental autonomy support in students. Therefore, training and enhancing self-compassion and parental autonomy support skills can enhance the academic performance and healthy social behaviors in students.