title: Self-compassion and social anxiety disorder.
abstract: Self-compassion refers to having an accepting and caring orientation towards oneself. Although self-compassion has been studied primarily in healthy populations, one particularly compelling clinical context in which to examine self-compassion is social anxiety disorder (SAD). SAD is characterized by high levels of negative self-criticism as well as an abiding concern about others' evaluation of one's performance. In the present study, we tested the hypotheses that: (1) people with SAD would demonstrate less self-compassion than healthy controls (HCs), (2) self-compassion would relate to severity of social anxiety and fear of evaluation among people with SAD, and (3) age would be negatively correlated with self-compassion for people with SAD, but not for HC. As expected, people with SAD reported less self-compassion than HCs on the Self-Compassion Scale and its subscales. Within the SAD group, lesser self-compassion was not generally associated with severity of social anxiety, but it was associated with greater fear of both negative and positive evaluation. Age was negatively correlated with self-compassion for people with SAD, whereas age was positively correlated with self-compassion for HC. These findings suggest that self-compassion may be a particularly important target for assessment and treatment in persons with SAD.
authors: Department of Psychology, Stanford University, 420 Jordan Hall, Stanford, CA 94305, USA. kwerner@stanford.edu
authors: Kelly H
authors: KH
authors: Werner
authors: Hooria
authors: H
authors: Jazaieri
authors: Philippe R
authors: PR
authors: Goldin
authors: Michal
authors: M
authors: Ziv
authors: Richard G
authors: RG
authors: Heimberg
authors: James J
authors: JJ
authors: Gross
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology; D004645:Empathy; D005239:Fear / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011581:Psychological Tests; D012649:Self Concept; D055815:Young Adult