TY - JOUR
T1 - The relations between the positive and negative components of self-compassion and depressive symptoms among sexual minority women and men
AU - Shakeshaft, Rhianydd
AU - McLaren, Suzanne
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2022/1
Y1 - 2022/1
N2 - Objectives: The experience of depression among sexual minority adults is a cause for concern. Research into protective factors is lacking. Self-compassion is considered to promote adaptive coping strategies and is associated with fewer depressive symptoms. The aim of this study was to investigate whether self-compassion and its components were associated with depressive symptoms among sexual minority adults and whether these relations were moderated by gender. Methods: A sample of 499 sexual minority women aged 18 to 77 years (M = 29.45, SD = 9.97) and 457 sexual minority men aged 18 to 79 years (M = 27.05, SD = 9.12) completed the Center for Epidemiology-Depression Scale and the Self-Compassion Scale. Results: Higher levels of self-compassion, self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness and lower levels of self-judgement, isolation, and over-identification were associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms. When all six components were entered simultaneously into a regression model, only the negative components predicted levels of depressive symptoms. Gender moderated the common humanity-depressive symptoms relation, with this relation being stronger for women than men. Conclusions: Results indicate that the negative components of self-compassion are associated with depressive symptoms among sexual minority adults and that the strength of the relations are not conditional on gender.
AB - Objectives: The experience of depression among sexual minority adults is a cause for concern. Research into protective factors is lacking. Self-compassion is considered to promote adaptive coping strategies and is associated with fewer depressive symptoms. The aim of this study was to investigate whether self-compassion and its components were associated with depressive symptoms among sexual minority adults and whether these relations were moderated by gender. Methods: A sample of 499 sexual minority women aged 18 to 77 years (M = 29.45, SD = 9.97) and 457 sexual minority men aged 18 to 79 years (M = 27.05, SD = 9.12) completed the Center for Epidemiology-Depression Scale and the Self-Compassion Scale. Results: Higher levels of self-compassion, self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness and lower levels of self-judgement, isolation, and over-identification were associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms. When all six components were entered simultaneously into a regression model, only the negative components predicted levels of depressive symptoms. Gender moderated the common humanity-depressive symptoms relation, with this relation being stronger for women than men. Conclusions: Results indicate that the negative components of self-compassion are associated with depressive symptoms among sexual minority adults and that the strength of the relations are not conditional on gender.
KW - Depressive symptoms
KW - Gender
KW - Self-compassion
KW - Sexual minority adults
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U2 - 10.1007/s12671-021-01696-4
DO - 10.1007/s12671-021-01696-4
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85119524878
SN - 1868-8527
VL - 13
SP - 57
EP - 65
JO - Mindfulness
JF - Mindfulness
IS - 13
ER -