Self-compassion and social anxiety in late adolescence: Contributions of self-reflection and insight

Self-compassion defuses the aggression triggered by social exclusion

Social exclusion is a pervasive phenomenon that can have profound psychological consequences, including increased aggression. Self-compassion can promote psychological resilience, which helps individuals cope with challenges and may help mitigate the aggression triggered by social exclusion. This study aims to explore the relationship between self-compassion and aggression in the context of social exclusion from both state and trait perspectives. First, a cross-sectional study (Study 1) was conducted; the findings revealed that social exclusion is associated with higher levels of aggression, while self-compassion is linked to lower levels of social exclusion and aggression. Further division of self-compassion into its constituent components (self-kindness, mindfulness, and common humanity) revealed additional insights into the specific roles played by these factors. Self-kindness and mindfulness were found to moderate the relationship between social exclusion and aggression, while common humanity was observed to mediate this relationship. To determine the causal relationships among variables in further detail, an experimental study (Study 2) was designed. This study utilized a recall writing task to induce feelings of social exclusion and employed self-compassion writing tasks to elicit self-compassionate responses from participants. The results of this experiment indicated that self-compassion can significantly reduce the aggression triggered by social exclusion, thus suggesting that self-compassion may help alleviate the distress caused by individuals' experiences of social exclusion. The findings of this research have important implications for the development of clinical interventions aimed at reducing the adverse effects of social exclusion.

Association between cognitive insight and anxiety among community-dwelling schizophrenia patients: the chain mediating effects of family cohesion and chronotype

Objective

To investigate the effect of cognitive insight on anxiety in community-dwelling schizophrenia patients and to construct a chain mediating model to determine the underlying mechanisms of the relationship between cognitive insight and anxiety through family cohesion and chronotype.

Methods

The Beck Cognitive Insight Scale, the Chinese version of the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Scale, the Morningness-Eveningness Scale, and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale were used to assess cognitive insight, family cohesion, chronotype, and anxiety in a sample of 785 individuals with schizophrenia living in the community. Spearman correlation analysis, multiple linear regression and Bootstrap methods were employed to analyze the four variables.

Results

Residential region, current employment status, and family economic status impacted anxiety among community-dwelling schizophrenia patients. All variables were associated with each other, but self-certainty was not significantly associated with anxiety. Cognitive insight and self-reflection had direct effects on anxiety, as well as indirect effects on anxiety through the partial mediating effect of chronotype, the suppressing effect of family cohesion, and the chain mediating effect of family cohesion and chronotype.

Conclusions

Family cohesion and chronotype can mediate the relationship between cognitive insight and anxiety. Improving family functioning, promoting emotional relationships within families, and correcting non-circadian sleep patterns can reduce anxiety in community-dwelling schizophrenia patients, with important implications for improving adverse mental health outcomes.

Anxiety Disorders: The Relationship between Insight and Metacognition

BACKGROUND

The exploration of metacognition in relation to anxiety has received considerable attention in recent decades. Research indicates that it plays a role in the development and maintenance of anxiety disorders while also providing benefits, including the ability to assess situations, modify behaviors, and make informed decisions.

SUMMARY

We propose that having an awareness of a disorder, also known as insight, is related to metacognition in anxiety. This relationship stems from the ability it provides individuals to recognize their mental state through reflection on personal experiences. We discuss the impact of insight and metacognition on decision-making, treatment-seeking behaviors, and coping strategy selection.

KEY MESSAGES

Understanding the concept of insight in anxiety disorders, as compared to other mental disorders like psychosis, requires exploring its complexities while carefully considering the balance of harms and benefits. While the medicalization of symptoms in psychosis is widely regarded as clearly beneficial, evaluating the role of insight in anxiety disorders demands a more nuanced understanding. Gaining a fuller perspective on patients' beliefs can impact their behaviors and decision-making. Clinicians can achieve this by encouraging active self-reflection to increase awareness, which includes evaluating both severity and impact on daily functioning. This also involves expressing experiences and exploring attributions of anxiety. This practical approach enables clinicians to understand engagement and treatment-seeking behaviors, allowing them to tailor treatment plans and develop effective coping and management strategies. Ultimately, this knowledge promotes a deeper comprehension of insight into anxiety disorders.

Appearance Orientation and Dating Anxiety in Emerging Adults: Considering the Roles of Appearance-Based Rejection Sensitivity, Social Physique Anxiety, and Self-Compassion

Emerging research has suggested that appearance-related factors, such as greater appearance orientation, are associated with dating anxiety in emerging adults, but much more could be done to understand mechanistic pathways and potential buffers. Here, we tested a moderated mediation model in which appearance-based rejection sensitivity and social physique anxiety were explored as mediators, and self-compassion was explored as a moderator, of the relationship between appearance orientation and dating anxiety. A total of 501 heterosexual emerging adults (248 women, 253 men) from the UK completed instruments measuring the aforementioned constructs. Relationships among all variables were largely similar across women and men, with only the association between social physique anxiety and appearance-based rejection sensitivity being significantly stronger in women. Mediation analysis in the total sample indicated that both social physique anxiety and appearance-based rejection anxiety were significant mediators. Additionally, we confirmed a serial mediation involving appearance orientation → appearance-based rejection sensitivity → social physique anxiety → dating anxiety. Conversely, self-compassion did not moderate the effects of either social physique anxiety or appearance-based rejection sensitivity on dating anxiety, although greater self-compassion was moderately associated lower dating anxiety. We suggest ways in which existing interventions aimed at reducing dating anxiety could be combined with body image interventions to reduce dating anxiety in heterosocial contexts.

Relationship Between Perceived Parental Academic Expectations and Students' Self-Regulated Learning Ability: A Cross-Sectional Study

In the field of self-regulated learning ability for college students, prior research usually neglected the role of parents when considering the physical distance between college and home. Indeed, an underlying describable driving force of learning remains embedded in the relationship between parents and students, even at the college stage. This study aimed to explore the relationships among perceived parental academic expectations, mastery goal orientation, self-reflection, and self-regulated learning ability of college students. Mediation and moderated mediation analyses were employed to analyze a sample of 691 college students. The results indicate that mastery goal orientation partially mediates the relationship between perceived parental academic expectations and self-regulated learning. In addition, self-reflection moderates the relationship between perceived parental academic expectations and self-regulated learning. The positive correlation between perceived parental academic expectation and self-regulated learning is stronger for students with low self-reflection than those with high self-reflection.

Self- but Not Other-Dimensions of Mentalizing Moderate the Impairment Associated With Social Anxiety in Adolescents From the General Population

Mentalizing, or social cognition, refers to the brain's higher order capacity that allows humans to be aware of one's own and others' mental states (e.g., emotions, feelings, intentions). While cognition in social anxiety has been broadly analyzed, there is a paucity of research regarding the role of social cognition. Moreover, mentalizing or social cognition research is traditionally focused on the understanding of others' mental states, rather than self-mentalizing. Finally, most studies analyze the role of social cognition in the development or maintenance of social anxiety, yet no study to date has analyzed whether social cognition moderates functional impairment associated with it. This study analyzes whether self- and other-mentalizing moderate the relationship between social anxiety and impairment in social and self-functioning. A sample of 262 adolescents from the non-clinical population was assessed on measures of social anxiety, self- and other- mentalization, indicators of social functioning (social competence and sociometric status), and indicators of self-functioning (depression and self-esteem). Multiple linear regressions were conducted to test possible moderation effects of self-mentalizing and other-mentalizing on the relationships between social anxiety and social and self-functioning. Results revealed that other-mentalizing does not moderate social- nor self-functioning, while self-mentalizing moderates the impairment of all of them. While impairment in social functioning is buffered by one dimension of self-mentalizing (emotional clarity; b = 0.003, p = 0.043 and b = 0.016, p = 0.008 for social competence and sociometric status, respectively), impairment in self-functioning is strengthened by the other dimension (attention to emotions; b = -0.007, p = 0.008 and b = 0.009, p = 0.047 for self-esteem and depression, respectively). Probing the moderation at the 16th, 50th, and 84th percentiles revealed that the negative imbalance between dimensions (i.e., high attention and low clarity) tended to exacerbate impairment most on all indicators, while the positive imbalance (i.e., low attention and high clarity) was usually the most buffering condition. This supports that "low-flying" or implicit mentalizing provides more resilience than explicit mentalizing (i.e., high attention and high clarity). Findings suggest that the work on emotional self-awareness should be stressed in the intervention of the social anxiety spectrum conditions in order to improve prevention, functioning, and ultimately, treatments, of people impaired by symptoms of social anxiety.