SELF-COMPASSION AND DYSLEXIA IN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS: READING HISTORY, SELF-EFFICACY, AND ANXIETY
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Abstract
Reading difficulties often lead to strong self-critical judgments and feelings of guilt in university students who show signs of dyslexia in the classroom. Indeed, these students may exhibit low self-efficacy in higher education and symptoms of anxiety. In this context, self-compassion plays an important role in promoting greater self-efficacy and less anxiety, which can result in greater acceptance and management of reading difficulties arising from dyslexia. In order to contribute to the development of research on the topic, as well as action plans in universities, this study aimed to investigate the relationships between the facets of self-compassion, reading history, factors of self-efficacy in higher education and anxiety in a sample of university students suspected of dyslexia. This was an inferential-descriptive cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach, with a sample of 303 university students, with an average age of 21.4 years and 64% female. The participants were evaluated through an online questionnaire, covering sociodemographic information, scores from the Self-Compassion and Self-Efficacy in Higher Education Scales, in addition to the anxiety subscale of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and responses from a Reading History questionnaire. The hypotheses were tested by descriptive statistics and the Mann-Whitney, Cohen's d, Eta Squared, Kendall's Tau-b, Principal Component Analysis and Multiple Linear Regressions tests. As a result, four of the five hypotheses were confirmed and another partially. It is noteworthy that the university students presented a risk for dyslexia at the mild degree and anxiety. There were differences between the presence of self-compassion, reading history and anxiety according to sex. Significant correlations were obtained between self-compassion and self-efficacy in higher education - weak positives - and between self-compassion, reading history and anxiety - moderate and weak negatives. The multiple regression analysis showed that self-compassion can be a predictor of reading history, self-efficacy in higher education and anxiety. This study revealed the importance of the positive construct self-compassion for the mental well-being of students suspected of dyslexia. It is concluded that it is necessary to promote the cultivation of self-compassion at the university. This perspective can contribute with differentiated contents for the proposition of actions, interventions and public policies of care for university students suspected of dyslexia.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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