Abstract
Self-compassion is gaining recognition as a resilience factor with implications for positive mental health. This study investigated the role of self-compassion in alleviating the effect of self-criticism on depressive symptoms. Participants were 147 urban, low-income African Americans with a recent suicide attempt. They were administered measures of self-criticism, depressive symptoms, and self-compassion. Results from this cross-sectional investigation showed that self-criticism was positively associated with depressive symptoms and negatively associated with self-compassion, and self-compassion was negatively associated with depressive symptoms. Bootstrapping analysis revealed that self-compassion mediated the self-criticism–depressive symptoms link, suggesting that self-compassion ameliorates the negative impact of self-criticism on depressive symptoms. Our findings suggest that low-income African Americans with recent suicide attempt histories may benefit from interventions that focus on enhancing self-compassion. These results also highlight self-compassion as a positive trait with promise to improve people’s quality of life and suggest that self-compassion-focused interventions are consistent with a positive psychology framework.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 202-223 |
Number of pages | 22 |
Journal | Omega (United States) |
Volume | 80 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 1 2019 |
Keywords
- African Americans
- depressive symptoms
- self-compassion
- self-criticism
- suicide
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Health(social science)
- Critical Care and Intensive Care Medicine
- Life-span and Life-course Studies