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The current study aims to examine the relationship between self-compassion and life satisfaction in Vietnamese adolescents and investigate the possibility that emotional and behavioural problems mediate this relationship.

Quantitative means of data collection and analysis were used to investigate the relationship between self-compassion and life satisfaction and the underlying mechanism of this relationship. A set of questionnaires was presented to a sample of 828 adolescents (M age = 14.61; SD = 1.08) aged 14–17 years from two secondary schools and two high schools in Thua Thien Hue Province, Vietnam. This helped to determine their self-compassion (self-compassion scale), emotional and behavioural problems (strengths and difficulties questionnaire) and life satisfaction (life satisfaction scale). Instruments reflected satisfactory reliability and validity.

The results show that self-warmth was positively associated with life satisfaction and that self-coldness was positively associated with emotional and behavioural problems and negatively associated with life satisfaction in Vietnamese adolescents. Emotional and behavioural problems fully mediated the negative relationship between self-coldness and life satisfaction.

It is implied that intervention programmes should be tailored to both promote self-compassionate behaviours and reduce self-coldness, to increase life satisfaction in adolescents.

The research available on the relationship between self-compassion and life satisfaction in adolescents, especially adolescents from Southeast Asia, is very sparse. More significantly, the underlying mechanisms behind this relationship are not yet fully understood.