Psychological stress has become a major concern, potentially leading to diverse health problems including psychopathology such as depression and anxiety. Transactional Model of Stress and Coping is an established model, conceptualizing stressful experiences via person–environment relationship. This cross-sectional study aimed to explore the pathway from stress to depression/anxiety, with a focus on self-criticism (inadequate-self and hated-self) and self-reassurance (reassured-self) in Czech students who suffered from high prevalence of mental health problems. Convenience sample of 119 undergraduates completed the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 and the Forms of the Self-Criticizing/Attacking & Self-Reassuring Scale. Correlation and path analyses were conducted. The Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology guidelines were used to aid an accurate and complete report of the study. Depression, anxiety, and stress were positively associated with inadequate-self and hated-self while negatively associated with reassured-self. Both inadequate-self and hated-self partially mediated the stress–depression and stress–anxiety relationships, whereas reassured-self only partially mediated the stress–depression relationship. Inadequate-self had greater impact on the stress–depression/anxiety pathways than hated-self and reassured-self. Findings indicate that clinical treatment may benefit from targeting the feelings of inadequacy to prevent stress progressing to psychopathology. This is particularly relevant as stress levels are rising globally. Our findings offer developments to the Transactional Model, and help practitioners and educators identify solutions to protect mental health of Czech university students.

心理压力已成为一个主要问题，可能导致各种健康问题，包括抑郁和焦虑等精神病理学问题。压力和应对的交易模型是一个已建立的模型，通过人与环境的关系来概念化压力体验。这项横断面研究旨在探索从压力到抑郁/焦虑的途径，重点关注高患病率的捷克学生的自我批评（不足的自我和讨厌的自我）和自我保证（放心的自我）的心理健康问题。119名本科生的便利样本完成了抑郁焦虑和压力量表21和自我批评/攻击和自我安慰量表的形式。进行了相关性和路径分析。加强流行病学观察性研究报告指南用于帮助准确和完整地报告研究。抑郁、焦虑和压力与不足的自我和憎恨的自我呈正相关，而与安心的自我呈负相关。不足的自我和讨厌的自我都部分地介导了压力-抑郁和压力-焦虑的关系，而安心的自我仅部分地介导了压力-抑郁的关系。与讨厌的自我和放心的自我相比，不足的自我对压力-抑郁/焦虑通路的影响更大。研究结果表明，临床治疗可能受益于针对不足的感觉，以防止压力发展为精神病理学。随着全球压力水平的上升，这一点尤其重要。