title: The Role of Self-Compassion in Buffering Symptoms of Depression in the General Population.
abstract: Self-compassion, typically operationalized as the total score of the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS; Neff, 2003b), has been shown to be related to increased psychological well-being and lower depression in students of the social sciences, users of psychology websites and psychotherapy patients. The current study builds on the existing literature by examining the link between self-compassion and depressive symptomatology in a sample representative of the German general population (n = 2,404). The SCS subscales of self-judgment, isolation, and over-identification, and the "self-coldness", composite score, which encompass these three negative subscales, consistently differed between subsamples of individuals without any depressive symptoms, with any depressive syndromes, and with major depressive disorder. The contribution of the positive SCS subscales of self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness to the variance in depressive symptomatology was almost negligible. However, when combined to a "self-compassion composite", the positive SCS subscales significantly moderated the relationship between "self-coldness" and depressive symptoms in the general population. This speaks for self-compassion having the potential to buffer self-coldness related to depression--providing an argument for interventions that foster self-caring, kind, and forgiving attitudes towards oneself.
authors.affiliation: Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada; Department of Oncology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada; Louise-Granofsky-Psychosocial Oncology Program, Segal Cancer Centre, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, Canada; Psychosocial Oncology Program, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Canada.
authors.forename: Annett
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Körner
authors.affiliation: Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
authors.forename: Adina
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Coroiu
authors.affiliation: Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Copeland
authors.affiliation: Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gomez-Garibello
authors.affiliation: University of Leipzig, Department of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Cornelia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Albani
authors.affiliation: University of Leipzig, Department of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, Leipzig, Germany; Faculty of Applied Human Studies, University of Applied Sciences Magdeburg and Stendal, Stendal, Germany.
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zenger
authors.affiliation: University of Leipzig, Department of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, Leipzig, Germany; Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Universal Medical Center Mainz, Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Elmar
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Brähler
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology*; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012648:Self Care; D055815:Young Adult