Does Self-Compassion Mitigate the Association Between Childhood Maltreatment and Later Emotion Regulation Difficulties? A Preliminary Investigation

Abstract

Child maltreatment-related outcomes range from no symptom expression to suicide. Increasingly, the diverse presentations have been conceptualized as core system dysregulation, including emotion dysregulation. Self-compassion has been advanced as a self-regulation strategy for countering negative self-directed emotions. This study explored whether individual differences in self-compassion would play a role in loosening the associations among childhood maltreatment severity and later emotion regulation difficulties. The sample consisted of transition-age youth (N=81) seeking treatment for problem substance use. Self-compassion was negatively associated with emotion regulation difficulties and childhood maltreatment, and predicted emotion dysregulation above and beyond maltreatment history, current severity of psychological distress, and problem substance use. In addition, self-compassion mediated the relationship between childhood maltreatment severity and later emotion dysregulation. These findings provide an impetus for further research into the relevance of self-compassion for maltreatment-related impairment.

Self-Compassion in Recovery Following Potentially Traumatic Stress: Longitudinal Study of At-Risk Youth

“…Tanaka et al (2011) found that higher levels of childhood emotional abuse, emotional neglect and physical abuse were associated with lower levels of SC; and that adolescents with lower SC levels were more likely to suffer from psychological distress leading to problems with substance abuse and in some instances attempted suicide among a sample of at-risk youth receiving child protective services. Relatedly, Vettese et al (2011) found that SC concurrently mediated the association between childhood maltreatment and later adolescent emotional dysregulation in a sample of youth seeking treatment for substance abuse above and beyond other risk factors including childhood maltreatment history, current psychological distress and addiction severity.…”

Maternal versus paternal physical and emotional abuse, affect regulation and risk for depression from adolescence to early adulthood

“…Others have proposed that the disturbance of the development of affect regulation and adaptive functioning (Kim & Cicchetti, 2010), including associated self-regulating strategies such as self-compassion (Vettese, Dyer, Li, & Wekerle, 2011) is implicated in the relationship between abuse and depression. Affect 4 regulation is defined here as the ability to modulate one's emotional states without undue attempts to avoid or suppress difficult emotions.…”

Understanding self-compassion in adolescents: Validation study of the Self-Compassion Scale

“…Overall, these findings point out that self-compassion is associated with positive psychological indicators (e.g., early memories of warmth and Running head: Self-compassion in adolescence 3 safeness, secure attachment, mindfulness, mental health, life satisfaction, emotional well-being; Cunha, Martinho, Xavier, & Espírito-Santo, 2013;Bluth & Blanton, 2014;Marshall, Parker, Ciarrochi, Sahdra, Jackson, & Heaven, 2015;Neff & McGehee, 2010). Inversely association patterns between self-compassion and maladaptive outcomes were found (e.g., negative affect, aggression, trauma-related symptoms, depression, anxiety; Barry, Loflin, & Douvette, 2015;Bluth & Blanton, 2015;Tanaka, Wekerle, Shmuck, & Paglia-Boak, 2011;Vettese, Dyer, Li, & Wekerle, 2011;Zeller, Yuval, Nitzan-Assayag, & Bernstein, 2014).…”