Individual Differences Research

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Individual Differences Research > Volume 24, Issue 1 (2026) > e24002

Subjective Emptiness as a Link Between Sense of Self and Psychological Distress in Emerging Adults

 Kaiwei Bai

Abstract

A coherent sense of self is central to psychological functioning, yet the experiential mechanisms linking self-structure to psychological distress are not well understood. This study examined subjective emptiness as a mediator of the association between sense of self and psychological distress in 82 young adults. Participants completed self-report measures of sense of self, subjective emptiness, and psychological distress. Mediation analyses with bootstrapped confidence intervals indicated that a weaker sense of self was associated with greater psychological distress and that this association was partially mediated by subjective emptiness. Symptom-specific analyses showed mediation for depressive and anxiety symptoms, but not somatic symptoms, suggesting affective specificity. Findings support subjective emptiness as a pathway linking self-structural vulnerability to psychological distress in emerging adults.

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Published 

January 14, 2026

Keywords 

Sense of self;

Subjective emptiness;

Psychological distress;

Depression;

Anxiety;

Self-structure;

Emerging adulthood