Does Compassion-Focused Therapy-Based Online Intervention Work for Chinese International Students with High Self-Criticism? A Randomized Controlled Trail

Self-criticism represents a central phenomenon among a variety of psychological distress and has been shown to relate to the motivational systems of competing and social ranking. The purpose of our study was to test the effect of online compassion-focused therapy (CFT)-based intervention (CFI) on Chinese international students in South Korea suffering from high self-criticism and related psychological distress. Thirty-two Chinese international students with a high level of self-criticism were randomized to either a four-session CFI group, a four-session rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT)-based online self-help approach group, or a wait-list (WL) control group. The results suggest that the CFI group demonstrated significant improvements in self-criticism, compassion, depression, anxiety, and shame, and these were greater than those in the REBT and WL groups. Our work provides evidence that CFI offers a possible approach for reducing self-criticism and related psychological distress and increasing compassion level for young Chinese populations.