Academic resilience, moral perfectionism, and self-compassion among undergraduate nursing students: A cross-sectional, multi-center study

Academic resilience has been identified as a coping method for nursing students' educational and practice challenges. Despite the importance of academic resilience, knowledge on how to enhance academic resilience is under-researched. To suggest suitable approaches, relationships between academic resilience and other constructs need to be appraised. This study aims to evaluate predictors of academic resilience, examining its relationships with other essential constructs: self-compassion and moral perfectionism, in undergraduate nursing students in Iran. This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in 2022. A convenience sample of 250 undergraduate nursing students at three universities in Iran participated in this study by completing self-report measures. Data collection tools were Nursing Student Academic Resilience Inventory, Moral Perfectionism scale, and Self-Compassion Scale-Short Form. Correlation and regression analyses were conducted. The mean and standard deviation of academic resilience were 57.57 ± 23.69; moral perfectionism 50.24 ± 9.97, and self-compassion 37.19 ± 5.02. Self-compassion had significantly related to moral perfectionism (r = 0.23, p < 0.001). Academic resilience had no statistically significant relationship with moral perfectionism (r = −0.05, p = 0.41) and self-compassion (r = −0.06, p = 0.35), but significantly affect age (r = 0.14, p = 0.03), Grade point average (r = 0.18, p < 0.001) and university of study (r = 0.56, p < 0.001). The grade point average and the university of the study predicted 33 % of the changes in academic resilience, and the greatest impact was related to the university (r = 0.56, p < 0.001). Adopting appropriate educational strategies and supporting the students will help improve nursing students' academic resilience and performance. Promoting self-compassion will lead to the development of nursing students' moral perfectionism.