Self-compassion and social anxiety: The mediating effect of emotion regulation strategies and the influence of depressed mood

Self-Compassion Across Anxiety and Mood Disorders: Implications for Treatment

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

This review summarizes recent studies examining average self-compassion scores in adults with symptoms of anxiety and mood disorders. We compare these findings with our own data to help establish norms for the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS) and to explore treatment implications for patients with these disorders.

RECENT FINDINGS

Several studies have demonstrated that adults with symptoms of anxiety and mood disorders have lower self-compassion scores compared to control groups, though many of these studies have established findings based on self-reported symptoms. Our study, involving patients at a large academic medical center with diagnoses confirmed on clinical interview, aligns with these overall findings. This reinforces the conclusion that anxiety and mood disorders are associated with lower self-compassion scores. Adults with anxiety and mood disorders demonstrate lower self-compassion scores than control groups. Incorporating self-compassion interventions into treatment may reduce symptoms and improve outcomes for these individuals.

Within-Person Relationships Among Self-Compassion, Emotion Regulation Difficulties, and Anxiety Symptoms: Testing an Emotion Regulation Model of Self-Compassion

Anxiety symptoms is prevalent among college students and is associated with a range of detrimental consequences. Self-compassion and emotion regulation difficulties are important factors affecting anxiety symptoms, but their functional mechanism and longitudinal correlation are still unclear. This three-year longitudinal study (baseline: n = 5785, 48.2% of female, Mage = 18.63 years, SD = 0.88; T1 to T5: n = range from 4312 to 5497) aimed to validate the emotion regulation model of self-compassion by examining the associations between self-compassion, emotion regulation difficulties, and anxiety symptoms. Random intercept cross-lagged panel models (RI-CLPMs) was used to distinguish within-person variations overtime from stable between-person differences. The results obtained from the RI-CLPMs indicated that there is a bidirectional effect between self-compassion and anxiety symptoms at the within-person level. Emotional regulation difficulties played a longitudinal mediating role in the prediction from self-compassion to anxiety symptoms at the within-person level, validating the emotion regulation model of self-compassion. The current study indicates that cultivating self-compassion in college students is crucial as it can improve their emotion regulation skills and alleviate anxiety symptoms.

The Mediating Roles of Self-Compassion and Emotion Regulation in the Relationship Between Psychological Resilience and Mental Health Among College Teachers

Background

The compromised well-being of educators engenders a range of educational, social, and economic issues that cannot be adequately addressed through the mere awareness of risk factors. The present research explores the mediating roles of self-compassion and emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) on the relationship between academic teachers' psychological resilience and mental health.

Methods

A total of 405 academic teachers from four colleges in Tabuk City, Saudi Arabia, participated in the study between September and November 2023. The standardized questionnaires measuring psychological resilience (The Brief Resilience Scale- BRS), self-compassion (The Self-Compassion Scale-SCS), emotion regulation (The Emotion Regulation Scale-ERS), and mental health (General Health Questionnaire-12) were used to collect data. The bivariate correlation, regression, and path analysis were employed to investigate their associations.

Results

The findings demonstrated a significant positive impact of psychological resilience on mental health (β=0.39, p<0.001). Self-compassion emerged as a significant positive mediator, strengthening the association between resilience and mental health (β=0.18, p<0.01). Cognitive reappraisal was found to have a positive mediating effect on this relationship (β=0.16, p<0.01), highlighting its functional significance in regulating emotions. Conversely, expressive suppression was found to negatively mediate the relationship, with an indirect effect of β=-0.12 (p<0.05), indicating a maladaptive influence on mental health.

Conclusion

The research emphasizes the significance of fostering self-compassion and adaptive regulatory strategies, like cognitive reappraisal, while mitigating maladaptive approaches, including expressive suppression, in order to enhance the mental health of university educators. These findings underscore the necessity for culturally sensitive mental health interventions within educational institutions in Saudi Arabia.

Reducing emotion dysregulation online in nonclinical population with compassion focused therapy and emotional competencies program: A randomized controlled trial

OBJECTIVES

The present randomized controlled study aimed to evaluate the effects of two interventions on emotional dysregulation as a primary outcome and on depression, anxiety, stress, well-being, self-compassion and emotional competencies as secondary outcomes. Finally, the mediating role of emotional dysregulation as a core process in the effect of interventions on anxiety-depressive and stress symptoms was evaluated.

METHODS

One hundred and seventy-nine individuals aged 18-68 years (M = 39, SD = 12.4; 83.9% females) with emotion regulation difficulties were randomly assigned to one of the three 12-weeks online programs: Compassion Focused Program (CFP), an Emotional Competencies Program (ECP) or a Waitlist control condition (WL). Participants completed pre-, post- and 3 months follow-up measures of each outcome. Mixed effect linear models compared groups on primary and secondary outcomes.

RESULTS

Results showed that (1) perceived credibility and expectancy and satisfaction did not differ between the two interventions, (2) both interventions reduced emotion regulation difficulty, depression, anxiety and stress symptoms, and enhanced well-being, self-compassion, and emotional competencies; (3) ECP was more effective to enhance well-being than CFP; (4) CFP was more effective to enhance emotional competencies than ECP, and (5) emotion regulation difficulty mediated the effect of the interventions on depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings offer preliminary support for the usefulness of online CFP and ECP to reduce emotion dysregulation, symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress and to increase well-being, self-compassion and emotional competencies. These results are discussed regarding clinical practice and the transdiagnostic role of emotional dysregulation.

Bivalent Fears of Evaluation in Social Anxiety: Evaluation of an Extended Psychoevolutionary Model

Fears of negative evaluation (FNEs) and fears of positive evaluation (FPEs) comprise a bivalent model of evaluation that can explain the aetiology and maintenance of Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD). In this study, we examined an extended version of this model which incorporates two related cognitive processes (concerns about reprisal and discounting of positive outcomes) as partial mediators of the effects of FNEs and FPEs. We built on earlier work by including a broader measure of social anxiety across different social situations and comparing models for groups of participants with and without probable SAD. Structural equation modelling was utilised to test the model in a sample of 890 university students (74.8% female, mean age 29.49). We replicated the findings of Cook et al. in the overall sample and in the group with probable SAD. FNEs and FPEs predicted social anxiety directly and were serially mediated by concerns about reprisal and discounting positive outcomes. The model was also a good fit for those without SAD; however, in the model, FNEs were no longer a direct predictor of social anxiety. The findings confirm the utility of the extended bivalent model and have implications for psychoevolutionary accounts of social anxiety.

The relationship between perfectionism and interpersonal sensitivity with self-compassion in university students: the mediation of repetitive negative thinking

Self-compassion is a construct of positive psychology related to personality and cognitive factors. Perfectionism and interpersonal sensitivity are prevalent personality traits among university students and are associated with low self-compassion. Further research is required to comprehend how these mechanisms work in creating self-compassion. Consequently, the current study investigated the direct and indirect relationship between perfectionism and interpersonal sensitivity with self-compassion via repetitive negative thinking. To this end, a sample of 450 students studying in Tehran during the 2022 academic year was selected as the study sample. The results indicated that perfectionism and interpersonal sensitivity demonstrate a negative direct relationship with self-compassion, while perfectionism and interpersonal sensitivity exhibit an indirect relationship with self-compassion via repetitive negative thinking. Based on the findings, it can be concluded that the relationship between perfectionism and interpersonal sensitivity with self-compassion is not straightforward and that repetitive negative thinking can mediate this relationship. The results can be used to improve methods for increasing self-compassion and paying attention to personality, and cognitive factors can be an important step toward more effective self-compassion interventions.

Incongruent gestures slow the processing of facial expressions in university students with social anxiety

In recent years, an increasing number of studies have examined the mechanisms underlying nonverbal emotional information processing in people with high social anxiety (HSA). However, most of these studies have focused on the processing of facial expressions, and there has been scarce research on gesture or even face-gesture combined processing in HSA individuals. The present study explored the processing characteristics and mechanism of the interaction between gestures and facial expressions in people with HSA and low social anxiety (LSA). The present study recruited university students as participants and used the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale scores to distinguish the HSA and LSA groups. We used a 2 (group: HSA and LSA) × 2 (emotion valence: positive, negative) × 2 (task: face, gesture) multifactor mixed design, and videos of a single face or gesture and combined face-gesture cues were used as stimuli. We found that (1) there is a distinction in the processing of faces and gestures, with individuals recognizing gestures faster than faces; (2) there is an attentional enhancement in the processing of gestures, particularly for negative gestures; and (3) when the emotional valence of faces and gestures align, it facilitates the recognition of both. However, incongruent gestures have a stronger impact on the processing of facial expressions compared to facial expressions themselves, suggesting that the processing of facial emotions is more influenced by environmental cues provided by gestures. These findings indicated that gestures played an important role in emotional processing, and facial emotional processing was more dependent on the environmental cues derived from gestures, which helps to clarify the reasons for biases in the interpretation of emotional information in people with HSA.

Shame-Based Experiences of Homophobic Bullying and Mental Health: The Mediating Role of Self-Compassionate Actions

Homophobic experiences with traumatic characteristics related to shame are more frequent among sexual minority (SM) than heterosexual individuals. Concurrently, SM individuals present higher levels of psychopathology and transdiagnostic processes (e.g., shame) than heterosexual individuals. Self-compassion has been identified as a protective mechanism that counteracts the effects of shame. The current study aimed to analyse which components of self-compassion affect mental health and test the mediating role of self-compassion in the relationship between feelings of shame in traumatic homophobic bullying experiences (THBEs) and psychopathology indicators (depression, anxiety, and social anxiety symptoms). In this study, 190 Portuguese SM individuals (Mage = 28.3, SD = 7.5) completed self-report measures assessing traumatic experiences, self-compassion, and psychopathology. Data were explored with SPSS and AMOS. Regression analyses showed that internal shame felt during THBE and compassionate actions predicted psychopathology outcomes. Mediation analyses revealed that internal shame during a THBE had a significant indirect effect on all psychopathology outcomes through compassionate actions. In other words, internal shame during a THBE was significantly associated with depression, anxiety, and social anxiety, and these relationships were partially mediated by compassionate actions. Our results reinforce the importance of developing compassionate actions towards the self as a possible protective factor for psychopathology among SM individuals.