Mindfulness and Self-compassion as Unique and Common Predictors of Affect in the General Population

Abstract

In contrast to the increased research interest in the benefits of mindfulness and self-compassion, relatively few studies have examined their unique and combined effects in predicting affect. This cross-sectional study examined the predictive value of mindfulness and self-compassion for depressive symptoms, negative affect, and positive affect in a large representative sample of community adults (N = 1736). The Five Facets of Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) was used as a measure of mindfulness and the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS) as a measure of self-compassion. Five FFMQ facets were explored: observe, describe, act with awareness, non-judgment, and non-reactivity. Two SCS facets were explored: its positive items (SCS Pos) and its negative items (SCS Neg). When simultaneously examining all seven facets of mindfulness and self-compassion, three of the five FFMQ facets and SCS Neg significantly predicted both depressive symptoms and negative affect, with SCS Neg and act with awareness being the strongest predictors. These findings suggest that a harsh attitude towards oneself and a lack of attention when acting have the greatest value in predicting the presence of psychological symptoms. With respect to positive affect, four of the five FFMQ facets (except non-judgment) were significant predictors, with no unique predictive value of the two SCS’s facets, suggesting that mindfulness is a more important predictor of positive affect than self-compassion, as measured by the FFMQ and SCS.

Exploring Connections Between Self-Compassion, Mindfulness, and Social Anxiety

“…Bivariate correlations revealed that self-compassion and the five facets of mindfulness measured by the FFMQ were significantly and positively correlated, with the strongest associations found for the facets Nonreact, Act with Awareness, and Nonjudge. Our findings concur with previous research in community samples that showed trait self-compassion and mindfulness are overlapping yet distinct constructs (Birnie et al, 2010;Hollis-Walker & Colosimo, 2011;López et al, 2016), and provide unique data on the connection between these two constructs in individuals with SAD. Intercorrelations between self-compassion, mindfulness and baseline clinical variables indicate that self-compassion and facets of mindfulness influence variation in severity of SAD symptoms and other characteristics of the disorder.…”

“…The strongest associations were between the FFMQ facet Act with Awareness, which denotes the ability to pay attention in the present moment and avoid automatic pilot, and depression severity (r=-.51), self-esteem (r=.49) and social adjustment (r=-.40). The moderately strong negative association between Act with Awareness and depression is consistent with previous work that showed this specific mindfulness skill may be especially relevant for depression (Baer et al, 2006;Cash & Whitingham, 2010;Curtiss & Klemanski, 2014;López et al, 2016;Royuela-Colomer & Calvete, 2016), possibly because it facilitates disengagement from dysphoric mood and cognitions and engagement in adaptive self-regulatory processes and behaviours. This mindfulness skill may also be relevant to self-esteem and social adjustment through similar mechanisms.…”

“…Intercorrelations between the FFMQ facets and clinical variables were generally significant and small to moderate in size, depending on the mindfulness skill, and generally support findings that higher levels of trait mindfulness are linked with better psychological functioning (Baer et al, 2006;López et al, 2016). The strongest associations were between the FFMQ facet Act with Awareness, which denotes the ability to pay attention in the present moment and avoid automatic pilot, and depression severity (r=-.51), self-esteem (r=.49) and social adjustment (r=-.40).…”

“…One finding of note is that the FFMQ facet Observe did not significantly correlate with any of the clinical variables, although it was a significant predictor of satisfaction with life in the linear regression model. A lack of association between this facet of mindfulness and psychological measures has been reported in some (Baer et al, 2008;Desrosiers, Klemanski, & Nolen-Hoeksema, 2013;de Bruin et al, 2012) but not all studies (López et al, 2016). Baer et al (2006) suggested that the strength of the relationship between the facet Observe and psychological outcomes is likely influenced by meditation experience, with nonmeditating samples showing no significant association between this facet and psychological measures.…”

The Process of Science: A Critical Evaluation of more than 15 Years of Research on Self-Compassion with the Self-Compassion Scale

“…This result has also been confirmed by empirical data showing that while the compassionate SCS components of self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness are connected to adaptive personality features (e.g., optimism), positive mood states (e.g., happiness), and aspects of well-being (e.g., quality of life), their uncompassionate counterparts of self-judgment, isolation, and over-identification are more clearly linked to negative affect and symptoms of anxiety and depression (e.g., Neff et al 2018a). Thus, the SCS contains multiple dimensions that are differentially related to external constructs (see also Brenner et al 2017Brenner et al , 2018Lopez et al 2015Lopez et al , 2016Muris et al 2018Muris et al , 2019a. It is clear that this has important consequences when researchers use and only report the total score of such a measure as one cannot know the nature of the different dimensions' contributions to that score as well as their unique predictive value for external variables (Smith et al 2009).…”