{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,21]],"date-time":"2026-10-21T17:21:56Z","timestamp":1792603316848,"version":"4.5.0"},"reference-count":58,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,25]],"date-time":"2025-11-25T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1764028800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Psychol."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Impostor phenomenon (IP) is widespread in doctoral education and is strongly linked to mental distress. Self-compassion is theoretically and empirically positioned as a counterbalance to the harsh self-evaluation embedded in IP, yet large-scale evidence in doctoral populations is limited.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>A national sample of 1,225 U.S. doctoral students completed validated measures of IP, self-compassion, anxiety, depression, and loneliness. Data were collected via online survey. Analyses included descriptive statistics, correlations, MANOVA tests comparing mental health across IP tertiles, and three hierarchical regression models testing whether self-compassion explained additional variance in distress beyond IP.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>IP scores were skewed high; women and non-binary students reported the highest IP. Anxiety, depression, and loneliness rose as IP increased. Across all three outcomes, self-compassion explained substantial additional variance beyond IP (\u0394R\u00b2 = 0.08\u20130.10) and meaningfully reduced IP\u2019s standardized coefficients (47%\u201375%). When self-compassion was added, IP was no longer associated with loneliness, and its associations with depression and anxiety were weakened. MANOVA showed large-effect, stepwise increases in distress from low to moderate IP, while self-compassion declined at each IP level.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Discussion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>IP was widespread in this sample and was associated with substantially elevated levels of distress, including at low to moderate IP levels. Self-compassion demonstrated robust inverse associations with loneliness, anxiety, and depression even when IP was considered in the models. The pattern of results indicates that self-compassion is a salient correlate of mental health in the context of IP among doctoral students.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2025.1669075","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,25]],"date-time":"2025-11-25T05:11:19Z","timestamp":1764047479000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Exploring relationships between self-compassion, impostor phenomenon, and mental health among doctoral students"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"16","author":[{"given":"Brian J.","family":"Clarke","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Michael T.","family":"Hartley","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,25]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","volume-title":"Understanding the role of social support in the association between loneliness and well-being for STEM graduate students","author":"Anderson","year":"2017"},{"key":"ref2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"251","DOI":"10.28945\/5195","article-title":"Factors contributing to impostor phenomenon in doctoral students: a U.S.-based qualitative study","volume":"18","author":"Bano","year":"2023","journal-title":"Int. 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