Cognitions as mediators in the relationship between self-compassion and affect

“Model fit was assessed using the goodness of fit index (GFI), comparative fit index (CFI), and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA), based on the recommendations of Hu and Bentler (1999).”

“Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSS; Rosenberg, 1965): The RSS is a 10-item measure rated on a 5-point scale (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree).”

“; Brown, GK. Manual for the Beck Depression Inventory-II.”

“The relationships between self-compassion and other constructs were spurious because selfcompassion was highly correlated with self-esteem (Arimitsu, 2014; Leary et al., 2007; Neff, 2003, 2011; Neff & Vonk, 2009; Petersen, 2014).”

“Evidence suggests that LKM enhances positive affect and well-being, and decreases depression in a normal population (Fredrickson et al., 2008; Neff & Germer, 2013); decreases posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depressive symptoms in veterans with PTSD (Kearney et al., 2013); and effectively…”

“Evidence suggests that LKM enhances positive affect and well-being, and decreases depression in a normal population (Fredrickson et al., 2008; Neff & Germer, 2013); decreases posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depressive symptoms in veterans with PTSD (Kearney et al., 2013); and effectively…”

“These results are consistent with previous reports (Diener & Diener, 1995; Kuster et al., 2012; Neff, 2003; Neff & Vonk, 2009; Sowislo & Orth, 2013) showing that selfesteem is a strong predictor of anxiety, depression, and well-being.”

“These results are consistent with previous reports (Diener & Diener, 1995; Kuster et al., 2012; Neff, 2003; Neff & Vonk, 2009; Sowislo & Orth, 2013) showing that selfesteem is a strong predictor of anxiety, depression, and well-being.”

“As for the relationship between self-compassion and negative emotion, Gilbert and Procter (2006) proposed a model that explains shame and self-criticism, which are the opposite of self-compassion, in terms of threat and safety.”

“Leary et al. (2007) found that when controlling for selfesteem and narcissism, high self-compassion predicted less catastrophizing, less personalizing, greater equanimity, and fewer extreme behavioral inclinations.”

“The relationships between self-compassion and other constructs were spurious because selfcompassion was highly correlated with self-esteem (Arimitsu, 2014; Leary et al., 2007; Neff, 2003, 2011; Neff & Vonk, 2009; Petersen, 2014).”

“The relationship between self-compassion and subjective well-being has been found in adolescents, adults (Neff & McGeehee, 2010; Wei, Liao, Ku, & Shaffer, 2011), and older adults (Phillips & Ferguson, 2013).”

“Similarly, Neff, Rude, and Kirkpatrick (2007) found that self-compassion is positively associated with happiness, optimism, positive affect, wisdom, personal initiative, curiosity and exploration, agreeableness, extroversion, and conscientiousness; and negatively with negative affect and…”

“The path from self-esteem to positive automatic thoughts supports findings from previous studies suggesting a relationship among self-esteem, negative automatic thoughts, depression, and anxiety (Hallion & Ruscio, 2011; Kuster et al., 2012).”

“Finally, Barnard and Curry (2011) reviewed a variety of studies and concluded that self-compassion is positively related to well-being and happiness and negatively associated with negative affect, depression, and anxiety.”

“Similarly, Allen and Leary (2010) showed that self-compassion increases the likelihood that one will employ a nonavoidance coping strategy, such as positive cognitive reframing or problem solving, to address negative events, and such a coping style may facilitate well-being.”

“However, differences in the association between selfcompassion and compassion for humanity, empathetic concern, and altruism have been found among adults, but not undergraduates (Neff & Pommier, 2013).”

“This suggests the concept of self-compassion (Neff, 2003) and the emotion dysregulation model of mood and anxiety disorders (Hofmann et al., 2012) can be applied to both the US and Japan.”

“…between negative automatic thoughts, depression, and anxiety (Hallion & Ruscio, 2011), and a mediational role of rumination between self-compassion and depression (Johnson & O’Brien, 2013; Krieger et al., 2013; Raes, 2010) and low self-esteem and depression (Kuster, Orth, & Meier, 2012).”

“The Japanese Version of the BDI-II was developed by Kojima et al. (2002), and was used in the present study.”

“Participants of other psychological interventions were from geographically diverse areas and typically middle-aged adults (Jazaieri et al., 2013; Neff & Germer, 2013).”

“Moreover, some research suggests that positive emotion tends to be unstable in those with high self-esteem, but stable in those with high self-worth (Kernis, 2005) or self-compassion (Neff & Vonk, 2009).”

“However, these results were inconsistent with those of Study 2 and Krieger et al. (2013) regarding the direct effect of self-compassion on depression.”

“Evidence suggests that LKM enhances positive affect and well-being, and decreases depression in a normal population (Fredrickson et al., 2008; Neff & Germer, 2013); decreases posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depressive symptoms in veterans with PTSD (Kearney et al., 2013); and effectively treats psychosis (Joh…”

“The relationship between selfcompassion and depression (Arimitsu, 2014; Yamaguchi, Kim, & Akutsu, 2014), and between automatic thoughts and depression (Nishikawa, Matsunaga, & Furutani, 2014; Takano & Tanno, 2009), were replicated in the present study.”

“In contrast to American culture, the Japanese culture is highly interdependent (Kitayama & Karasawa, 1997).”

“Johnson and O’Brien (2013) showed that rumination, self-esteem, and shame were significant mediators between selfcompassion and depression.”

“…IH -PA Author M anuscript related to negative automatic thoughts, depression, and negative affect; and positively related to positive affect and life satisfaction (Burgess & Haaga, 1994; Ingram, Kendall, Siegle, Guarino, & McLaughlin, 1995; Ingram & Wisnicki, 1988; Jolly & Wiesner, 1996).”

“Hitokoto and Uchida (2014) proposed the concept of interdependent happiness, which would be attained interdependently, and revealed that interdependent happiness had a significantly larger effect size than did self-esteem on subjective well-being in Japanese students, but not in American students.”

“, 2008; Neff & Germer, 2013); decreases posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depressive symptoms in veterans with PTSD (Kearney et al., 2013); and effectively treats psychosis (Johnson et al.”

“, 2013); and effectively treats psychosis (Johnson et al., 2011; Laithwaite et al., 2009).”

“Moreover, East– West cultural differences in dialectical emotions have been demonstrated: both positive and negative emotions were experienced more moderately by Japanese individuals than by Americans (Miyamoto & Ryff, 2011).”

“, 2013); and effectively treats psychosis (Johnson et al., 2011; Laithwaite et al., 2009).”

“This practice has been demonstrated to enhance positive emotions, increase life satisfaction, increase psychological resources for dealing with negative emotions, and promote psychological recovery (Fredrickson, Cohn, Coffey, Pek, & Finkel, 2008; Johnson et al., 2009).”

“The path from self-esteem to positive automatic thoughts supports findings from previous studies suggesting a relationship among self-esteem, negative automatic thoughts, depression, and anxiety (Hallion & Ruscio, 2011; Kuster et al., 2012).”

“The relationship between self-compassion and subjective well-being has been found in adolescents, adults (Neff & McGeehee, 2010; Wei, Liao, Ku, & Shaffer, 2011), and older adults (Phillips & Ferguson, 2013).”

“The relationship between selfcompassion and depression (Arimitsu, 2014; Yamaguchi, Kim, & Akutsu, 2014), and between automatic thoughts and depression (Nishikawa, Matsunaga, & Furutani, 2014; Takano & Tanno, 2009), were replicated in the present study.”

“Engaging in kind acts toward others has been shown to increase positive affect and improve relationship satisfaction in socially anxious people (Alden & Trew, 2013).”

“Breines and Chen (2013) showed that people with high self-compassion are more motivated than people with high self-esteem to improve personal weaknesses, rectify moral transgressions, and challenge themselves.”

“…are also consistent with previous findings that positive automatic thoughts are inversely related to negative automatic thoughts, depression, and negative affect; and positively related to positive affect and life satisfaction (Burgess & Haaga, 1994; Ingram et al., 1995; Jolly & Wiesner, 1996).”

“…IH -PA Author M anuscript related to negative automatic thoughts, depression, and negative affect; and positively related to positive affect and life satisfaction (Burgess & Haaga, 1994; Ingram, Kendall, Siegle, Guarino, & McLaughlin, 1995; Ingram & Wisnicki, 1988; Jolly & Wiesner, 1996).”

“The relationships between self-compassion and other constructs were spurious because selfcompassion was highly correlated with self-esteem (Arimitsu, 2014; Leary et al., 2007; Neff, 2003, 2011; Neff & Vonk, 2009; Petersen, 2014).”

“…IH -PA Author M anuscript related to negative automatic thoughts, depression, and negative affect; and positively related to positive affect and life satisfaction (Burgess & Haaga, 1994; Ingram, Kendall, Siegle, Guarino, & McLaughlin, 1995; Ingram & Wisnicki, 1988; Jolly & Wiesner, 1996).”

“Positive automatic thoughts were unrelated to anxiety when depression was controlled, but significantly related to depression when anxiety was controlled (Boelen, 2007; Burgess & Haaga, 1994; Jolly & Wiesner, 1996).”

“Thus, the positive automatic thought probably couldn't explain the relationship fully (Arimitsu & Hofmann, 2015).”

“In the general population, the relationship between selfcompassion and anxiety has been shown to be mediated by positive and negative automatic thoughts [70] in one study and by worry and rumination in another [68].”

“(Arimitsu & Hofmann, 2015; Diedrich, Grant, Hofmann, Hiller, & Berking, 2014).”

“…affect and negatively correlated with negative affect (Neff, Rude, & Kirkpatrick, 2007; Neff & Vonk, 2009) while the same results revealed by Arimitsu & Hofmann (2015), arguing that self-compassion leads to increase of positive automatic thoughts which in turn lead to higher levels of life…”

“Studies concur that self-compassion may encourage reduced defensiveness to self-evaluative threat as compared to self-esteem (Arimitsu & Hofmann, 2015).”

“For example, young adults who are more selfcompassionate experience more positive automatic thoughts (Arimitsu and Hofmann, 2015), less negative automatic thoughts (Akin, 2012; Arimitsu and Hofmann, 2015; Mantzios et al.”

“Interestingly, self-compassion (defined as compassion directed towards oneself) is positively associated with hope (Yang et al., 2016), psychological well-being (Tran et al., 2021), and life satisfaction (Arimitsu & Hofmann, 2015).”

“A few previous studies reported the same association in undergraduate students [26, 27].”

“Certain researchers believe that positive emotional factors play roles in the influence of self-compassion on the negative psychological outcomes of post-trauma victims (Arimitsu and Hofmann, 2015).”

“…consideration of possible roles for emotion regulation (Inwood & Ferrari, 2018), reductions in automatic thinking, cognitive fusion and appraisal (Arimitsu & Hofmann, 2015; Basharpoor et al., 2021; Chishima et al., 2018), coping (Hamrick & Owens, 2019; Li et al., 2021), perceived stress (Luo et…”

“Our results also support previous research that has shown that people with higher self-compassion have more positive than negative automatic thoughts, which in turn, are associated with lower negative affect including anxiety (Arimitsu & Hofmann, 2015).”

“…offered, focusing on possible roles for cognitive processes, for example, reductions in automatic thinking, cognitive fusion, cognitive appraisal (Arimitsu & Hofmann, 2015; Basharpoor et al., 2021; Chishima et al., 2018), and ruminative depression (Fresnics & Borders, 2017; Fresnics et al.,…”

“Previous studies indicated that lower NAT and higher PAT have a significant relationship with subjective life satisfaction, social adaptation, and QOL in healthy subjects 19,52 and people with depression.”

“The presence of self-compassion encourages the ability to regulate emotions, which ultimately increases the ability to think positively and reduces anxiety levels (Arimitsu & Hofmann, 2015; Hasmarlin & Hirmaningsih, 2019).”

“In previous research, for instance, engaging in self-compassion exercises is related to less negative emotionality, perhaps due to a reduction in self-critical thoughts (Arimitsu & Hofmann, 2015).”

“…with fewer psychological symptoms, via less use of repetitive negative thinking (Cabaços et al. 2023; Wadsworth et al. 2018), rumination and worry (Arimitsu and Hofmann 2015; Bakker et al. 2019; S. L. Brown et al. 2020; Casali et al. 2022; Fresnics and Borders 2017; Hodgetts et al. 2021; Jansen…”

“Additionally, it facilitates the generation of positive automatic thoughts that buffer against depressive symptoms and enhance emotional resilience [44].”

“Moreover, self-compassion was associated with lowered levels of automatic negative thoughts (Arimitsu & Hofmann, 2015) and of anxiety (Marshall & Brockman, 2016) and rumination (Smeets et al., 2014) which frequently accompany OCD symptoms (Wahl et al., 2019).”

“…(Hildebrant, 2013) e pensamentos automáticos negativos gerais (Hall & Papageorgiou, 2005), bem como uma correlação negativa com a autocompaixão (Arimitsu & Hofmann, 2015), pelo que a associação com estas variáveis foi também investigada no contexto do estudo das propriedades psicométricas da…”

“Compassion focuses more on dealing with emotions rather than avoiding it.[40]”

“…shame is also negatively associated with self-compassion (Barnard & Curry, 2012), and various self-compassion based interventions have proven to be effective in reducing shame levels, negative affect and self-criticism (Arimitsu & Hofmann, 2015; Gilbert & Procter, 2006; Kelly et al., 2009).”

“…連をレビューしたAllen & Leary（2010）は，セルフ・ コンパッションと肯定的な認知再構成，問題解決，サ ポート希求，気晴らし，逃避・回避の5つのコーピン グとの関連について紹介している。このレビューによ ると，セルフ・コンパッションは肯定的な認知再構成 と正の関連が，逃避・回避と負の関連が示されてい る。一方で，問題解決については一貫した知見が得ら れておらず，サポート希求と気晴らしについては未検 討な部分が多いという。また，慢性的な身体疾患の患 者を対象に，セルフ・コンパッションとコーピングの 関連を検討したSirois,…”

“…self-referent upward counterfactual thinking and other identified mediators, such as rumination and tolerance of negative emotions (Diedrich et al., 2017; Raes, 2010), positive future outlook (Phillips, 2018), and automatic and repetitive thinking (Arimitsu & Hofmann, 2015; Wadsworth et al., 2018).”

“Individuals with higher levels of self-compassion are less likely to experience depression and anxiety (MacBeth & Gumley, 2012) and are more likely to experience life satisfaction (Arimitsu & Hofmann, 2015) and happiness (Neff & Vonk, 2009).”

“In other words, people with higher self-compassion show lower levels of stress, anxiety, and depression (Arimitsu & Hofmann, 2015; Neff et al., 2007), while showing enhanced mental health and life satisfaction (Neff et al., 2007).”

“…studies indicate that the individuals who have a tendency towards self-compassion are expected to face fewer negative emotions (Leary et al., 2007; Arimitsu & Hofmann 2015; Odou & Brinker, 2014), and their personalities are characterized by flexibility in stressful situations that often cause…”

“Selain itu, Arimitsu & Hofmann (2015) menjelaskan bahwa ketika individu memiliki self-compassion maka dapat meningkatkan pikiran otomatis positif dan menurunkan kecemasan yang dapat meningkatkan kepuasan hidup.”

“Self-compassion has been negatively associated with shame and anger (Siwik et al., 2021), self-critical thinking (Arimitsu & Hofmann, 2015), hopeless-ness isolation (Hawkley & Cacioppo, 2007) and rumination (Moberly & Watkins, 2008) while self-compassion positively associates with forgiveness (Wu…”

“au between self-esteem/self-compassion and both anxiety and depression [14], as well as the relationship between self-criticism and negative affect [15].”

“Self-compassion has also been reported to be related to optimism and happiness, as well as personal initiative, curiosity, and exploration (Neff, 2009; Neff et al., 2007), and life satisfaction (Anggraeni and Kurniawan, 2012; Arimitsu & Hofmann, 2015).”

“Furthermore, NATs were identified as the primary dysfunctional cognitive mechanisms related to other psychological processes that contribute to the maintenance of mental health disorders [79–81].”

“These results are consistent with those reported in other studies (19-22).”

“Previous research has demonstrated that trait self-compassion is associated with more positive automatic thoughts (Arimitsu & Hofmann, 2015) and less catastrophizing and personalizing thoughts (Reis et al., 2015).”

“In several studies, stigma was positively correlated with depression and anxiety [66,70,71,77,86,87,88].”

“…University, Ardabili, Iran and stress as well as higher levels of relationship harmony, self-enhancement, psychological well-being, and emotional resilience (Arimitsu and Hofmann 2015; Birkett 2014; Breines and Chen 2013; Leary et al. 2007; Neff 2003a, 2003b, 2009; Neff et al. 2007; Yang 2016).”

“(i. e., accepting the present experience without judgment)(Arimitsu & Hofmann, 2015).”