Self-compassion and Psychological Distress in Adolescents—a Meta-analysis

Abstract

Research indicates that self-compassion is relevant to adolescents’ psychological well-being, and may inform the development of mental health and well-being interventions for youth. This meta-analysis synthesises the existing literature to estimate the magnitude of effect for the association between self-compassion and psychological distress in adolescents. Our search identified 19 relevant studies of adolescents (10–19 years; N = 7049) for inclusion. A large effect size was found for an inverse relationship between self-compassion and psychological distress indexed by anxiety, depression, and stress (r = − 0.55; 95% CI − 0.61 to − 0.47). The identified studies were highly heterogeneous, however sensitivity analyses indicated that correction for publication bias did not significantly alter the pattern of results. These findings replicate those in adult samples, suggesting that lack of self-compassion may play a significant role in causing and/or maintaining emotional difficulties in adolescents. We conclude that self-compassion may be an important factor to target in psychological distress and well-being interventions for youth.

Effectiveness of Self-Compassion Related Therapies: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

“…On the one hand, we found that selfcompassion-related therapies, compared to a control condition, successfully increase self-compassion and reduce levels of depression and anxiety with medium effect sizes. These results indicate that self-compassion is a psychological characteristic that can be modified in therapy, and this is of clinical interest given the relationship between self-compassion and psychopathology (MacBeth and Gumley 2012;Marsh et al 2018). However, this meta-analysis also found that self-compassionrelated therapies did not produce better outcomes than active control conditions.…”

“…Where possible, we also extracted depression and anxiety scores. We focussed on symptoms of depression and anxiety as key outcome variables since these have been identified as linked to self-compassion in previous meta-analyses (MacBeth and Gumley 2012;Marsh et al 2018). They are also common outcomes in RCTs, so it was likely that we would identify a sufficient number of studies to calculate summary estimates of the effect of therapy on these two variables.…”

“…Self-compassion is the tendency to soothe oneself with kindness and non-judgemental understanding in times of difficulty and suffering (Neff 2003b;Gilbert 2009). Greater levels of self-compassion have been linked to reduced mental health symptoms, with meta-analyses reporting large correlations between higher levels of self-compassion and lower levels of depression, anxiety and stress in adults (r = − 0.54; MacBeth and Gumley 2012) and adolescents (r = − 0.55; Marsh et al 2018), as well as greater overall psychological well-being (r = 0.47; Zessin et al 2015). Motivated by the link between selfcompassion and mental health, a range of compassion-based therapies have been developed (for a review, see Leaviss and Uttley 2015), and a meta-analysis has provided preliminary evidence that such therapies produce moderate positive changes in self-compassion and other mental health outcomes (Kirby et al 2017).…”

The link between self‐compassion and psychotic‐like experiences: A matter of distress?

“…A potential mechanism of the effect achieved with these modules could be the reduction in loneliness as has been found for mindfulness‐based stress reduction training (Creswell et al ., ). Similarly, compassion‐focused interventions may help to ameliorate negative feelings (Marsh, Chan, & MacBeth, ) associated with loneliness. For example, self‐compassion enables individuals to appraise their experiences as part of a ‘common/shared humanity’, providing some relief or even feelings of connectedness with others.…”

Different Shades of Beauty: Adolescents’ Perspectives on Drawing From Observation

“…Thus, the aesthetic dimension, while serving as a basis for judgment and competition, could also provide leverage for processing issues related to the development of self-compassion and self-acceptance (see, Neff and McGehee, 2010). When engaging in DFO, self-compassion and acceptance could be accompanied by a loving, flexible gaze directed toward both the aesthetics of the final product, as well as toward the creative self and the creative process (see also, Marsh et al, 2017). Moreover, focusing on the aesthetics of the visual object might allow for the adoption of a flexible perception toward the concept of beauty, which could become a way to process and contain the extensive preoccupation that adolescents have with their physical selves (Hargreaves and Tiggemann, 2004;Burnette et al, 2017).…”