The higher impulsivity of offenders in prison is a challenge for prison intervention. Childhood maltreatment, one of the factors closely related to the generation and development of impulsivity, is ...also prevalent in offenders. Therefore, it is critical to investigate the underlying paths that generate impulsivity in offenders who have experienced childhood abuse.
Targeting positive protective factors, this study aimed to probe the mediating roles of self-compassion and cognitive reappraisal in the relationship between childhood maltreatment and impulsivity in offenders.
The participants included 2643 offenders, 1534 males and 1109 females. Each participant completed the appropriate questionnaires to measure childhood maltreatment, impulsivity, self-compassion, and cognitive reappraisal. The PROCESS macro was used to perform the mediation analysis and hypothesis testing.
The findings showed that childhood maltreatment indirectly affected offenders' impulsivity through self-compassion and cognitive reappraisal, and the mediating effect of self-compassion was stronger than that of cognitive reappraisal. Further analyses found that sexual abuse indirectly affected impulsivity through self-compassion, and the remaining types of childhood maltreatment were associated with impulsivity in indirect pathways through self-compassion and cognitive reappraisal.
The results suggest that reinforcing practical training in self-compassion and cognitive reappraisal, especially the former, might facilitate the reduction of impulsive symptoms among offenders with backgrounds of childhood maltreatment.
Growing evidence indicates that self-compassion is associated with better physical health, but the pathways that mediate this relationship are not well understood. This study tested a serial ...mediation model that linked self-compassion, perceived stress, health behaviors, and a comprehensive index of physical health. A sample of 176 individuals completed an online survey posted on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Self-compassion had an indirect effect on physical health via both mediators and through the sequential pathway, suggesting that taking a kind, accepting and mindful stance toward one’s flaws and failures may have benefits for reducing stress and promoting health behaviors.
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has brought immense psychological pressure and disruptions to daily life for all individuals, and particularly children, parents, and families. Despite ...these difficulties, parents are able to show resilience through adaptive coping and positive parenting behaviors. Although there is robust research on resilience in children, very little research has tested predictors of parental resilience. The present study presents descriptive information about mothers' pandemic-related stressors and positive changes and then tests whether prepandemic maternal well-being and child effortful control predicted mothers' resilient parental outcomes (positive behavior and coping) through the mediators of maternal self-compassion, adherence to family routines, and child coping. The sample comprised 95 mothers (95.38% European American, 3.2% African American, and 1.1% Asian American) with a mean age of 38.21 years (SD = 5.71 years, Range = 25.72-51.60 years) and education ranging from a high school to an advanced degree (M = 16.26 years, SD = 2.28 years, Range = 12-21 years). Results revealed that prepandemic maternal well-being predicted adaptive coping both directly and indirectly through self-compassion. Children's effortful control predicted maternal adaptive coping indirectly through children's own adaptive coping, and predicted mothers' positive parenting behaviors directly. Posthoc models revealed adherence to routines to be a correlate and outcome, rather than predictor, of positive parenting and bidirectional relations between parent and child coping. This study provides evidence for parent, child, and family-level factors related to parental resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic.
People affected by chronic skin conditions suffer from elevated levels of psychological distress. There is a need for evidence-based treatments that integrate medical care. Mindfulness and ...Self-compassion programs (MCBPs) have proven effective in chronic diseases. This systematic review aims to narratively synthesize the literature on mindfulness and self-compassion as traits and interventions in chronic skin conditions.
We searched four electronic databases for mindfulness and self-compassion trials and correlational studies in chronic skin conditions. We narratively synthetized results regarding the effects of mindfulness and self-compassion, both as traits and as interventions, on psychological and disease outcomes.
Thirteen studies were included in our review. Evidence from cross-sectional studies suggest that mindfulness and self-compassion are linked to lower psychological distress and better adjustment to the disease. MCBPs appear feasible for this population and can lower psychological distress, reduce disease severity and improve quality of life. Methodological issues limit conclusions on MCBP efficacy. Based on our analysis, we propose possible mechanisms that future research could explore.
The integration of MCBPs in the care process of chronic skin conditions appears promising. Definitive conclusions cannot be drawn due to a lack of strong evidence. Further studies with high methodological standards are needed.
•Gratitude was positively associated with self-compassion, moral disengagement, and cyberbullying perpetration.•Both self-compassion and moral disengagement mediated the association between gratitude ...and cyberbullying perpetration.•Self-compassion and moral disengagement sequentially mediated the link between gratitude and cyberbullying perpetration.
Recent studies have documented the negative association between gratitude and cyberbullying perpetration. However, it is unknown about the mediating mechanisms connecting this link. The current study examined whether self-compassion and moral disengagement would mediate the link between gratitude and cyberbullying perpetration. A sample of 1488 Chinese college students (Mage = 19.84 years, SD = 1.61) completed questionnaires including demographics, gratitude, self-compassion, moral disengagement, and cyberbullying perpetration. The results showed that: (a) gratitude was negatively associated with cyberbullying perpetration; (b) both self-compassion and moral disengagement mediated the association between gratitude and cyberbullying perpetration in a parallel manner; (c) self-compassion and moral disengagement sequentially mediated the link between gratitude and cyberbullying perpetration. The study illuminates the role of individual positive traits (such as gratitude and self-compassion) in decreasing moral disengagement and cyberbullying perpetration and implies that gratitude and self-compassion can be trained for reducing cyberbullying perpetration among adults.
Parents of children with autism are faced with difficult and unique daily stressors associated with their child’s disorder. The personal characteristics of parents can influence how they approach ...stressful life events and potentially help them cope with some of the deleterious effects associated with extreme stress. One factor that may be an important coping strategy is self-compassion, which involves being kind to oneself in times of difficulty, recognizing the shared nature of human suffering, and being mindfully aware of negative thoughts and emotions. This study examined the association between self-compassion and well-being in 51 parents of a child with autism using self-report measures. Self-compassion was positively associated with life satisfaction, hope, and goal reengagement and negatively associated with depression and parental stress. Even though child symptom severity is often the strongest predictor of negative adjustment for parents, self-compassion universally predicted parental well-being over and above the effects of child symptom severity. Results suggest that self-compassion may play a significant role in well-being for parents of children with autism. Implications for future research and applications of the construct of self-compassion are discussed.
The double ABCX model of adaptation has been used to predict parental outcomes in parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), with predictors including child characteristics, pile up of ...demands, external resources, coping, parental perceptions, and internal resources. This study investigated whether self-compassion is a unique predictor of parental outcomes of stress and quality of life. One hundred and thirty-nine parents (120 mothers, 19 fathers) completed an online questionnaire investigating known predictors and self-compassion. It was found that higher scores on the positive dimension of self-compassion were associated with better quality of life, and higher scores on the negative dimension of self-compassion were associated with greater stress. This research has implications for developing self-compassion interventions for parents.
Objective: Emerging theory and research suggest that self-compassion promotes the practice of health behaviors, and implicates self-regulation as an explanatory factor. However, previous ...investigations focused only on behavior intentions or health risk behaviors, and did not investigate the role of emotions. This study expands on this research using a small-scale meta-analysis approach with our own data sets to examine the associations of self-compassion with a set of health-promoting behaviors, and test the roles of high positive affect and low negative affect as potential explanatory mechanisms. Method: Fifteen independent samples (N = 3,252) with correlations of self-compassion with the frequency of self-reported health-promoting behaviors (eating habits, exercise, sleep behaviors, and stress management) were meta-analyzed. Eight of these samples completed measures of positive and negative affect. Results: Self-compassion was positively associated with the practice of health-promoting behaviors across all 15 samples. The meta-analysis revealed a small effect size (average r = .25; p < .001) of self-compassion and health behaviors, with low variability. Tests of the indirect effects of self-compassion on health behaviors through positive and negative affect with multiple mediator analyses revealed small effects for each. Separate meta-analyses of the indirect effects (IE) were significant for positive (average IE = .08; p < .001) and negative affect (average IE = .06; p < .001), and their combined indirect effects (average IE = .15; p < .0001). Conclusion: Self-compassion may be an important quality to cultivate for promoting positive health behaviors, due in part to its association with adaptive emotions.
Higher trait self-compassion is consistently linked to more adaptive responses to distressing events but it is unclear whether this is equally true across contexts. The congruence theory of ...interactionism states that when individuals' characteristics match their environment, they experience better outcomes. As a primary component of self-compassion is understanding that personal struggles are a part of the human experience, trait self-compassion should be more strongly related to adaptive responses to failures in contexts that signal a sense of common humanity versus isolation. The present study tested this theory. 102 undergraduates underwent an induced failure and then received a contextual cue that led them to believe that a peer had experienced a similar event (Common Humanity condition) or had not (Alone condition). Participants then completed questionnaires. Trait self-compassion interacted with condition to predict responses to the failure. Trait self-compassion predicted more adaptive responses to the failure (i.e., greatest state self-compassion and positive affect, and lowest state shame) when the participants shared the failure experience with a peer as opposed to when they experienced it alone. Results suggest that the adaptive response styles of self-compassionate individuals to negative events may vary based on the interpersonal context of the failure.
•Trait self-compassion (SC) predicted more adaptive responses to a failure.•However, the effects of SC depended on the interpersonal context.•Higher SC predicted better coping responses if a peer had also faced a failure.•Higher SC was not always related to better coping if the failure occurred alone.
The acquisition and mastery of emotion regulation is one of the most important developmental tasks of adolescence. Difficulties in regulating emotions are one of the most robust risk factors for the ...development of difficulties and psychopathology. This study investigates whether a mindful parenting style is associated with adolescent’s difficulties in emotion regulation and whether adolescents’ self-compassion and psychological inflexibility mediate this association. This study also explores gender and age differences in study variables and the moderating role of adolescents’ gender and stage of adolescence in the mediation model. A total of 375 mother-adolescent dyads participated in the study. The adolescents had a mean age of 14.19 years (
SD
= 1.67; range = 12–19 years) and 59.5% were girls. The mindful parenting dimensions of compassion for the child and nonjudgmental acceptance of parental functioning were indirectly associated with difficulties in emotion regulation through self-compassion, whereas the mindful parenting dimension of listening with full attention was indirectly associated with difficulties in emotion regulation through psychological inflexibility. Some associations were only significant for girls. These findings suggest that mindful parenting is a possible vehicle to foster adaptive emotion regulation in adolescents by facilitating their self-compassion and psychological flexibility.
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