Abstract
Behavioral activation has been shown to engender improvement of depressive symptoms. Behavioral activation specifically addresses behavioral patterns that maintain depressive symptoms and increases activation of rewarding behaviors based on a person’s own values. Nevertheless, behaving according to those values can be difficult. Consequently, discussing reduction in barriers to activation of value-based behaviors is important. Self-compassion might promote value-based behavior when a person confronts some obstacle. We evaluated differences in self-compassion and behavioral characteristics at high and low levels of value-based behaviors. Furthermore, we examined relations of self-compassion to value-based behaviors while considering activation, avoidance, and positive reinforcement in the context of behavioral activation. All 800 university student participants (415 women, 385 men; mean age=20.47years; age range 18–24years) in this study completed assessments. Descriptive statistics, MANOVA, and stepwise regression analysis relations elucidated their value-based behavior, self-compassion, and behavioral characteristics. Results suggest that participants who behaved according to values had high levels of self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness. Results of stepwise regression analyses suggest as a new finding that positive components of self-compassion (self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness) are related to value-based behaviors even when behavioral factors are considered in the context of behavioral activation.
Highlights
Depression, which has been estimated as affecting 15–20% of university students (Benton et al, 2003), can adversely affect academic performance and social activity (Balazs et al, 2013)
The results demonstrated that the value-based behavior scores are positively related with those of activation (r = 0.58, p < 0.01), positive reinforcement (r = 0.51, p < 0.01), self-kindness (r = 0.51, p < 0.01), common humanity (r = 0.34, p < 0.01), mindfulness (r = 0.49, p < 0.01), self-judgment (r = 0.08, p < 0.05), and the SCS-total score (r = 0.40, p < 0.01; Table 1)
We applied stepwise regression analysis to assess whether each component of self-compassion was related to value-based behaviors, considering the effects of some behavioral characteristics
Summary
Depression, which has been estimated as affecting 15–20% of university students (Benton et al, 2003), can adversely affect academic performance and social activity (Balazs et al, 2013). Behavioral activation assesses behavioral patterns that maintain depressive symptoms and which increase the activation of rewarding behaviors based on a person’s own values (Kanter et al, 2009; Martell et al, 2010; Takagaki et al, 2016a). Values are defined as freely chosen, verbally constructed consequences of ongoing, dynamic, evolving patterns of activity, which establish predominant reinforcers for that activity (Wilson and DuFrene, 2009). They are intrinsic in engagement in the valued behavioral pattern itself (Wilson and DuFrene, 2009). It is necessary to discuss factors that promote value-based behaviors in people, even when they are facing some obstacles
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