COVID-19 menyebabkan berkurangnya interaksi individu yang dapat memunculkan kesepian. Dengan demikian, kesepian perlu diatasi dengan welas diri yang telah ditemukan pengaruhnya terhadap kesepian pada penelitian terdahulu. Namun, pengaruh welas diri terhadap kesepian perlu diuji kembali dengan mengontrol variabel gender karena terdapat penelitian serupa yang menemukan adanya kemungkinan bias gender dalam hasil yang ditemukan terkait pengaruh welas diri terhadap kesepian. Meta analisis juga menunjukkan adanya hubungan gender dengan welas diri maupun kesepian. Penelitian ini dilakukan untuk menguji peran welas diri terhadap kesepian setelah mengontrol variabel gender pada dewasa muda Indonesia pada masa pandemi COVID-19. Penelitian kuantitatif ini melibatkan 474 partisipan dengan kriteria laki-laki atau wanita minimal berpendidikan lulusan SMA/sederajat berdomisili Indonesia dan berusia 20 hingga 40 tahun. Pengukuran kesepian dilakukan dengan alat ukur UCLA Loneliness Scale (version 3) oleh Russell (1996) dan pengukuran welas diri menggunakan alat ukur Self-Compassion Scale (Neff, 2003). Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa welas diri secara umum memengaruhi kesepian secara negatif dan signifikan (b = -10,104, SE = 0,638, p = 0,000). Pengaruh negatif dan signifikan welas diri terhadap kesepian berkontribusi sebesar 34,3% setelah mengontrol variabel gender. Berdasarkan hasil tersebut dapat disimpulkan bahwa makin tinggi tingkat welas diri yang dimiliki individu, akan makin rendah tingkat kesepian pada individu tersebut. Dengan demikian, penyebaran informasi terkait welas diri masih perlu dilakukan sebagai salah satu upaya mengurangi tingkat kesepian.

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COVID-19 causes reduction in individual interactions which can lead to the feelings of loneliness. Thus, loneliness needs to be overcomed by self-compassion which has been found to have an effect on loneliness in previous studies. However, the effect of self-compassion on loneliness needs to be re-examined with addition of control for the gender variable due to a possible gender bias in the results that have been found in similar studies regarding the effect of self-compassion on loneliness. Meta-analysis also shows a gender relationship with self-compassion and loneliness This study was conducted to examine the role of self-compassion on loneliness after controlling for gender variables in young Indonesian adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. This quantitative study involved 474 participants with the criteria of being male or female, at least having a high school graduate/equivalent, domiciled in Indonesia and aged 20-40 years. Loneliness was measured using the UCLA Loneliness Scale (version 3) by Russell (1996) and self-compassion was measured using the Self-Compassion Scale (Neff, 2003). The results showed that self-compassion generally negatively and significantly affected loneliness (b = -10.104, SE = 0.638, p = 0.000). The negative and significant effect of self-compassion on loneliness contributed 34.3% after controlling for the gender variable. Based on these results, it can be concluded that the higher the level of self-compassion an individual has, the lower the level of loneliness in that individual will be. Thus, the socialization of information related to self-compassion still needs to be done as an effort to reduce the level of loneliness.