Shame and Depressive Symptoms: Self-compassion and Contingent Self-worth as Mediators?
Abstract
Research has identified the experience of shame as a relevant predictor of depressive symptoms. Building upon resilience theory, this is the first study to investigate if self-compassion and/or contingent self-worth (i.e., family support and God's love) mediate the link between shame and depressive symptoms. Participants were 109 African Americans, within the age range of 18 and 64, who sought service following a suicide attempt from a public hospital that serves mostly low-income patients. Findings suggest that shame was related to depressive symptoms through self-compassion but not through contingent self-worth, underscoring the significant role that self-compassion plays in ameliorating the aggravating effect of shame on depressive symptoms. Results highlight the value of incorporating self-compassion training into interventions for suicidal African Americans in an effort to reduce the impact of shame on their depressive symptoms and ultimately their suicidal behavior and as a result enhance their capacity for resilience.
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Self-compassion is negatively associated with both shame and internalized stigma.
“Another psychological process that has previously been found to be negatively associated with both shame (Zhang et al. 2018) and internalized stigma (Mackali, Çetinkaya, and Ay 2023) is self-compassion.”
From Illness Stigma and Shame in People With Chronic Illnesses vs. SARS‐CoV‐2 Survivors: Associations With Psychological Distress Through Psychological Flexibility and Self‐Compassion. (2024) · cites this paper as Zhang et al. 2018
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“In addition, compassionate mind training is effective with people with high shame and who engage in self-criticism (Gilbert et al., 2012; Lucre & Corten, 2013).”
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“Finally, such interventions must be adapted for use with the target population, in this case low-income African Americans (Dutton, Bermudez, Matas, Majid, & Myers, 2013; Sobczak & West, 2013; Woods-Giscombé & Black, 2010).”
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Berglund, S., Danielsson, A., Jakobsson Støre, S., Carreiras, D., Carvalho, S. A., Blomqvist‐Storm, M., Pinto, H., Palmeira, L., Pereira, M., & Trindade, I. A. (2024) · Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy · doi:10.1002/cpp.70009 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
- Authors
- Zhang, H., Carr, E. R., Garcia-Williams, A. G., Siegelman, A. E., Berke, D., Niles-Carnes, L. V., Patterson, B., Watson-Singleton, N. N., & Kaslow, N. J.
- Affiliations
- University of California, San Francisco (US)
- Yale University (US)
- Catholic University of America (US)
- University of Georgia (US)
- Emory University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Zhang, Huaiyu
- Venue
- Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings
- Published
- 2018-02-27
- Volume
- 25
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 408-419
- ISSN
- 1068-9583 (ISSN-L)
- 1573-3572
- OpenAlex
- W2793074174
- Cited by
- 33
- References
- 23
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 3
- FWCI
- 2.34
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Emory University Research Council (Group interventions for Suicidal African American men and women)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Emotions and Moral Behavior
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Suicide and Self-Harm Studies
- Keywords
- shame, depressive symptoms, self-compassion, contingent self-worth, mediation, resilience, suicide attempts, African Americans, family support, divine love, suicidal behavior, self-compassion training
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Black or African American, Depression, Empathy, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Poverty, Self Concept, Shame, Suicide, Attempted, Urban Population, Young Adult
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