Title: Can promoting compassion and gratitude through a four-week online training program
improve women's mental health? A randomized controlled trial
Version: 1 Date: 05 Jul 2024
Reviewer's report:
Good work on your paper, I have provided the lines and sentences which I believe need revisions
below and attached. The bulk of my feedback stems from noticing  there were quite a few typos
in the manuscript. Additionally, every fact-based sentence requires a reference.
Lines 52-53:
References are needed at the end of this sentence: “Generally, women experience a higher
incidence of depression and anxiety disorders throughout their lifetime” – perhaps the [3,4,5]
are applicable to that sentence as well. “This” on like 53 needs to be more specific, for example,
“This occurrence is due to a complex interplay…”
Lines 54-55:
It is not clear what “susceptibilities” entails: “These susceptibilities have been further intensified
by the unique stressors of the pandemic, in addition to pre-existing gender inequalities.” If
“susceptibilities” are referring to depression and anxiety disorders, perhaps provide statistics on
the changes in prevalence.
Lines 56-57, 71-72, 89-90:
References are needed for the claims made on all of these lines.
Lines 88-89:
More specificity is needed regarding what “Covid” refers to, is the pandemic or the virus being
referred to here: “Moreover, it may serve as a protective measure against the mental health
effects of Covid [26]”
Line 104:
It is unclear why there are two groups for the hypotheses. There is no contextual information
here to help the reader understand what the experimental conditions are; section 1.3 needs to be
moved or more information needs to be provided before listing the hypotheses.
Line 115:
It is not clear what “No changes required” is referring to?
Line 118:
“The study hypothesizes that the experimental group will experience significant improvements
in isolation” – isolation reads here as loneliness/seclusion; however, I assume it is referring
to “viewing one's experiences as part of common human experiences rather than isolating and
separating” as part of self-compassion? It would be help the reader to know this is an outcome
being measured by an SCS subscale.
Line 152 – 154:
Currently participants’ results is presented in the methods and results. Please remove
participants’ information and combine these lines with the participants’ information in the
results. Only the eligibility and the recruitment information should be in the methods.
Line 189:
There are two periods at the end of the sentence.
Line 216:
There are two commas in this sentence.
Line 218:
The end bracket is missing in this sentence.
Line 264:
Please add a note at the bottom of the table and define what “EG” and “KG” mean.
Line 293:
“CG” is used on line 293 but “KG” is used in line 264 – should these be the same?
Line 300 and beyond:
The SCS subscales need to be clearly defined, for example, “3.2.6 SCS Mindful” reads
awkwardly. It should be rephrased to something like “3.2.6 SCS – Mindfulness Subscale”,
which is what it is called referring to this resource: https://self-compassion.org/wp-content/
uploads/2021/03/SCS-information.pdf
Please also refer to these as subscales in the descriptions of the figures.
Line 469-470:
“They” is vague in this sentence, please specify: “When used together, they have also shown
promising results (Victorson et al., 2021).”
Lines 472-473:
It is not clear why square brackets are used now for the references: “… suggest compassion and
gratitude can be taught and learned [Neff, 2020; Neff & Prommier, 2013; Neff 2023; Emmons
& Shelton, 2002, Lambert et al., 2012 and Valikani et al., 2019].”
Lines 477-478:
It is not clear why Rituals/Noticing Benefits was mentioned here but no discussion of the results
were included: “The study measured Feelings of Gratitude (FOG), Behavioral Shortcomings
(BS), and Rituals/Noticing Benefits (RNB). However, no significant changes were found in
FOG or BS.”
Lines 486-487:
Please specify what “this” is referring to: “This allows for greater versatility in shaping
interventions aimed at enhancing women's psychological well-being through positive
psychology.”