Good for the Self: Self-Compassion and Other Self-Related Constructs in Relation to Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression in Non-clinical Youths

J Child Fam Stud (2016) 25:607–617 DOI 10.1007/s10826-015-0235-2 ORIGINAL PAPER Good for the Self: Self-Compassion and Other Self-Related Constructs in Relation to Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression in Non-clinical Youths Peter Muris1,2 • Cor Meesters1 • Anna Pierik1 • Bo de Kock1 Published online: 19 June 2015 Ó The Author(s) 2015. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Abstract This study examined relationships among selfcompassion, self-esteem, and self-efficacy and symptoms of anxiety disorders and depression in a sample of 132 nonclinical adolescents aged 12–17 years. The results first of all indicated that the Shortened Self-Compassion Scale for Adolescents was reliable (i.e., all Cronbach’s alphas were [.70) and valid in terms of both construct (as demonstrated by a principal components analysis which revealed the hypothesized three-factor structure) and concurrent validity (i.e., as shown by means of positive correlations with selfesteem and self-efficacy). Further, the expected negative correlations were found between self-compassion and anxiety and depression, indicating that higher levels of this self-related construct are associated with lower symptom levels, and vice versa. Of the three components of selfcompassion, mindfulness appeared most convincingly related to symptoms of anxiety and depression. Finally, when controlling for other self-related constructs, selfcompassion no longer accounted for a significant proportion in the variance of symptom levels. In contrast, selfesteem (depression) and in particular self-efficacy (anxiety and depression) did show unique explanatory power. Keywords Self-compassion
Self-efficacy
Self-esteem
Anxiety and depression
Adolescents & Peter Muris 1 Clinical Psychological Science, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands 2 Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa Introduction Self-compassion is a relatively new self-related concept that involves ‘‘being open to and moved by one’s own suffering, experiencing feelings of caring and kindness toward oneself, taking an understanding and non-judgmental attitude toward one’s inadequacies and failures, and recognizing that one’s own experience is part of the common human experience’’ (Neff 2003b; p. 224). Further exploration has revealed that self-compassion essentially consists of six basic elements. Three elements are positive indicators of self-compassion, namely (1) self-kindness, which refers to the tendency to be caring and understanding with oneself when confronted with personal failures, problems, and stress; (2) common humanity, which is concerned with the inclination to recognize that one’s failure, problems, and stress are a normal part of human life; and (3) mindfulness, which has to do with the ability of not becoming too absorbed by one’s difficulties and associated negative feelings so that it is possible to retain a healthy balance between what goes right and what goes wrong. The other three elements are negative indicators of the construct and in essence the counterparts of the first three components, which are labelled as (4) self-judgment, (5) isolation, and (6) over-identification (Neff 2003a). From a psychological perspective, self-compassion is considered to be a construct of interest because it would enhance people’s resilience when facing stress and adversity (e.g., Neff 2003a; Gilbert 2005). This has been nicely demonstrated in a series of experimental studies conducted by Leary et al. (2007) who assessed the emotional and cognitive reactions of undergraduate students after being exposed to various types of unpleasant self-relevant events (e.g., receiving another person’s ambivalent feedback to one’s disclosure of a personal event). One of the main 123 608 findings of these studies was that students scoring high on self-compassion exhibited less negative emotions and a more accepting attitude towards their failures than students scoring low on self-compassion. The presumed resilience-promoting qualities of selfcompassion also appear to have positive repercussions for people’s mental health. A recent meta-analytic study by MacBeth and Gumley (2012) identified 20 samples from 14 studies exploring the relation between self-compassion—as measured by Neff’s (2003b) Self-Compassion Scale—and common expressions of psychopathology, such as depression, anxiety, and stress. The results indicated that there was a robust and significant relationship between self-compassion and psychopathology in general (r = -.54), which was also evident for symptoms of depression (r = -.52), anxiety (r = -.51), and stress (r = -.54). As expected, the direction of this relationship was negative, which means that higher levels of self-compassion are generally accompanied by lower levels of psychopathological symptoms. Altogether, MacBeth and Gumley (2012; p. 550) conclude that these results provide support for ‘‘the importance of selfcompassion for developing well-being, reducing anxiety and depression, and increasing resilience to stress.’’ Adolescence is a challenging developmental period during which youths typically experience stress in relation to academic performance, interactions with parents, the position within the peer group, and their body image and sexual attractiveness (Santrock 2013). A substantial proportion of the adolescents suffers from emotional problems such as anxiety and depression (e.g., Clark et al. 1994; Lewinsohn et al. 1993), and so—given its association with resilience—self-compassion might be a relevant construct to explore within the context of adolescent mental health. So far, however, only a handful of studies have examined the relationship between self-compassion and psychological problems in adolescent populations. In the first study, Neff and McGehee (2010) administered the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS; Neff 2003b), the Beck Depression Inventory (Beck and Steer 1987), and the Trait form of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger et al. 1970) in a sample of 235 high school students aged 14–17 years. Results indicated that there were substantial negative correlations between self-compassion on the one hand, and trait anxiety (r = -.73) and depressive symptoms (r = -.60) on the other hand, and these correlations were highly comparable to those documented in a comparison group of 287 young adults aged 19–24 years who were also included in this study (r’s being -.67 and -.51, respectively). In further research by Bluth and Blanton (2014a), an online survey including the SCS, the negative affect scale of the Positive and Negative Affect Scale (Watson et al. 1988), and an index of perceived stress was completed by a sample of 67 high school students aged 123 J Child Fam Stud (2016) 25:607–617 14–18 years. Robust negative correlations were found between self-compassion and negative affect (which includes a mixture of avers (...truncated)