HOW SELF-COMPASSION HELPS REDUCE SYMPTOMS OF DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY IN NON-CLINICAL SLOVAK YOUTH: THE MEDIATING ROLE OF EMOTION REGULATION STRATEGIES

• Authors: Pilárik Ľubor , Virostková Nábělková Eva
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Self-compassion has received considerable attention for promoting well-being and reducing psychopathology, and preliminary findings generate the hypothesis that self-compassion influences mental health indirectly through adaptive emotion regulation strategies. The cross-sectional study investigates the links between self-compassion, emotion regulation and depression/anxiety symptoms in 420 Slovak adolescents and young adults (Mage = 19.4, SD = 3.2). We examined the direct and indirect effects of self-compassion on depression/anxiety symptoms through cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression as mediators. The bivariate correlation analysis confirmed that depression and anxiety were significantly negatively correlated with cognitive reappraisal and self-compassion. As predicted, depression and anxiety symptoms significantly and positively correlated with emotion suppression. Mediation analysis demonstrated an indirect effect of self-compassion on both depression and anxiety through a cognitive reappraisal. However, when controlling for the effect of depression, the mediation effect of cognitive reappraisal on the relationship between self-compassion and anxiety was eliminated. The study confirms that cognitive reappraisal affects the relationship between self-compassion and depression by regulating negative emotions. However, the protective role of self-compassion and cognitive reappraisal in reducing anxiety symptoms is questionable.

Keywords

EN

SELF-COMPASSION; COGNITIVE REAPPRAISAL; EXPRESSIVE SUPPRESSION; DEPRESSION; ANXIETY

• Publisher: Institute of Experimental Psychology, Slovak Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Studia Psychologica
• Year: 2024
• Volume: 66
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 286 - 298

Contributors

author

Pilárik Ľubor

• Faculty of Education, Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica, Ružová 13, 974 11 Banská Bystrica, Slovak Republic

• https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9140-5948

author

Virostková Nábělková Eva

• https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3503-3502

Identifiers

DOI

https://doi.org/10.31577/sp.2024.04.906