Background: Psychological stress from academic and athletic demands adversely affects college athletes’ mental health, the underlying mechanisms of this relationship remain insufficiently understood.

The gap

Consensus across the literature

Supporting evidence — 4 representative gaps

• Work‐Stressors and Depression and Anxiety—A Longitudinal Study of the Moderating Role of Self‐Compassion (2025) · doi

  Furthermore, while cross-sectional studies offer increasing support for this moderation effect of self-compassion, few studies have examined this in longitudinal designs which may provide more robust insight into the role of self-compassion on the relation between work stress experiences and symptoms of depression and anxiety.

  Keywords: self compassion cross sectional offer increasing support moderation effect examined longitudinal designs provide robust insight
• Mindfulness, psychological resilience, and cognitive reappraisal on athletic performance: a predictive model based on psychological mechanisms (2026) · doi

  BACKGROUND: Mindfulness is increasingly viewed as a psychological resource for athletic performance, yet the sequential mechanism through which mindful awareness is translated into performance through cognitive reappraisal and psychological resilience remains insufficiently examined.

  Keywords: psychological performance background mindfulness increasingly viewed resource athletic sequential mechanism mindful awareness translated cognitive reappraisal
• Mindfulness and Mental Health of College Athletes: The Role of Stress Coping and Burnout (2025) · doi

  Background: Psychological stress from academic and athletic demands adversely affects college athletes’ mental health, the underlying mechanisms of this relationship remain insufficiently understood.

  Keywords: background psychological stress academic athletic demands adversely affects college athletes mental health underlying mechanisms relationship
• Self compassion as a Protective Mediator Between Childhood Adversity and Stress in Combat Athletes (2026) · doi

  The cross-sectional design precludes causal inference, and self-report measures may be subject to recall bias. Future research should employ longitudinal or experimental designs to con�irm the mediating role of self- compassion and explore additional moderators (e.g., fear of self-compassion, coping styles). Examining physiological stress markers (e.g., cortisol, HRV) alongside psychological variables would provide a more comprehensive understanding of stress regulation in combat athletes. CONCLUSIONS Combat sports impose unique stress demands due to their inherently aggressive and high-risk nature (James et al., 2018; Slimani et al., 2018). In our study, self-compassion emerged as a robust protective factor, demonstrating both a strong direct effect on perceived stress and a signi�icant mediating role in the ACE–stress link. Based on these results, enhancing self-compassion in this population is crucial, may not only buffer stress but also promote resilience and performance stability under pressure. Brief interventions such as mindfulness- based self-compassion training have shown promise in collegiate athletes (Kuchar et al., 2023) and could be adapted for combat sport contexts. CONFLICT OF INTEREST The authors declare no con�lict of interest. REFERENCES

  Keywords: self stress compassion combat mediating role athletes based interest cross sectional design precludes causal inference