The Unseen Armor Against Life's Blows

The Unseen Armor Against Life's Blows | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article The Unseen Armor Against Life's Blows NURGUL OZDEMIR, NİLAY ISBİLİR This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7784501/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 7 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract While sport is a valuable tool for fostering social participation among young people, it also faces the threat of gender discrimination. People who are exposed to gender discrimination are more likely to develop depression. However, self-compassion plays a protective role in depression. This research aimed to determine whether self-compassion mediates the relationship between university sports team players' perceived gender discrimination and their depression levels. The study involved 93 female and 110 male college team athletes aged 18-27. As a result, perceived gender discrimination had an indirect effect on participants' levels of depression through self-compassion. Athletes who experienced greater gender discrimination were found to exhibit elevated levels of depression and diminished self-compassion. Conversely, those with increased self-compassion reported lower levels of depression. Therefore, it is posited that self-compassion may serve as a protective factor for adolescents against depression in early adulthood, mitigating the negative impacts associated with perceived gender discrimination. Self-compassion gender discrimination depression college athletes Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Reviews received at journal 04 Dec, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 14 Nov, 2025 Reviewers invited by journal 14 Nov, 2025 Editor assigned by journal 12 Nov, 2025 Editor invited by journal 23 Oct, 2025 Submission checks completed at journal 22 Oct, 2025 First submitted to journal 21 Oct, 2025 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7784501","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":550159088,"identity":"454cc6a3-47e4-400c-9311-749e0a5d7a51","order_by":0,"name":"NURGUL OZDEMIR","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA+UlEQVRIiWNgGAWjYNCCAhCRAEI2PAwHgGwegloM4FrS4FokiNPCwHCYgaAWc4ncx695DBjk5NuTj254uOe8DN+NBMYHb9sY6swbsGuxnJFuZg3UYszY8yztRsKz2zySNxKYDee2MUjIHMDhpBtpbMZALYnNEjlmNxIO3OYxuJHAJs0L1ILLZXAtbRL534BazoG0sP8moIX5MUhLj0QOG1DLAbAtzHi1nHnGxjjHQMJYgucZyGHJPJJnHjZLzjknITkDl5bjacwf3lTYgELs2c0fB+zs+Y4nH/zwpsyGH0/EsEmgRQJjAwOBmGT+gE92FIyCUTAKRgEDAE7GVLW/tVG/AAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"Izmir Democracy University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"NURGUL","middleName":"","lastName":"OZDEMIR","suffix":""},{"id":550159090,"identity":"18c2d44d-5e62-4c79-9426-49f53f37de03","order_by":1,"name":"NİLAY ISBİLİR","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Yaşar University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"NİLAY","middleName":"","lastName":"ISBİLİR","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-10-05 11:38:24","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7784501/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7784501/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":96768985,"identity":"424e894e-bbfe-4abb-971e-a06741830155","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-25 23:01:21","extension":"pdf","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":566552,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"TheUnseenArmorAgainstLifesBlows.1.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7784501/v1/bb1e57b96387422a3c10b138.pdf"},{"id":96768984,"identity":"a5ec3fe8-6e74-46ed-a3d0-a188c0648dcf","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-25 23:01:21","extension":"json","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"acdc-reference","size":3791,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"43731682a83d4d93b28577200399bd8c.json","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7784501/v1/2300bafd45600f9039074141.json"},{"id":96768986,"identity":"255325dc-2b8a-4231-8b1d-c596fc0fbb01","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-25 23:01:25","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":290362,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"TheUnseenArmorAgainstLifesBlows.1.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7784501/v1_covered_77fcc73a-a8cc-4d82-9b83-bb4ff4635d7b.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"\u003cp\u003eThe Unseen Armor Against Life's Blows\u003c/p\u003e","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"bmc-psychology","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"psyo","sideBox":"Learn more about [BMC Psychology](http://bmcpsychology.biomedcentral.com/)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"BMC Psychology","twitterHandle":"BMC_series","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"BMC Series","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Self-compassion, gender discrimination, depression, college athletes","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7784501/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7784501/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"While sport is a valuable tool for fostering social participation among young people, it also faces the threat of gender discrimination. 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