Mechanisms of mindfulness: Rumination and self-compassion

Julie Lillebostad Svendsen,Katrine Valvatne Kvernenes,Agnethe Smith Wiker,Ingrid Dundas

doi:10.1080/19012276.2016.1171730

Julie Lillebostad Svendsen, Katrine Valvatne Kvernenes + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1080/19012276.2016.1171730

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Abstract

Why do more mindful individuals tend to be less depressed? We hypothesized (1) that mindfulness is associated with depressive symptoms both via the path of lower levels of rumination and higher levels of self-compassion and (2) that the path via self-compassion would explain variance beyond that which could be explained by rumination. Undergraduate students (N = 277) completed the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire, the Rumination subscale of the Rumination-Reflection Questionnaire, the Self-Compassion Scale, and the depression subscale of the symptom checklist-90 revised (SCL-90-R-dep). Results showed that mindfulness was associated with depressive symptoms both via the pathway of lower levels of rumination and via the pathway of higher levels of self-compassion. Both pathways were found to predict unique variance in depressive symptoms beyond that which could be explained by the other pathway. This suggests that one needs to consider the influence of mindfulness on both rumination and on self-compassion in order to fully understand why mindful individuals tend to be less depressed.

Highlights

Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.Self-compassion—the ability to be kind and caring toward oneself in times of suffering—is found to be positively associated with mental health and well-being (e.g., Hollis-Walker and Colosimo 2011; Neff 2003b; Neff et al 2007b)
The overall aim of this thesis was to examine how dispositional self-compassion relates with emotional stress symptoms, mindfulness and psychophysiological flexibility
The results of the mediation analysis using bootstrapping were in accordance with our first hypothesis that both higher levels of Self-Compassion Scale (SCS) and lower levels of RRQ-rum mediated the relationship between mindfulness and depressive symptoms

Summary

Introduction

Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s12671-016-0549-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.Self-compassion—the ability to be kind and caring toward oneself in times of suffering—is found to be positively associated with mental health and well-being (e.g., Hollis-Walker and Colosimo 2011; Neff 2003b; Neff et al 2007b). Trait self-compassion can be viewed as an implicit (predominantly unconscious and autonomic) strategy of emotion regulation in making an individual more accepting and less judgmental toward possible intrinsic and extrinsic stressors It comprises three pairs of opposing components: (a) self-kindness vs self-judgment, which is the tendency to be kind and understanding toward oneself in times of suffering, instead of critical and selfblaming; (b) common humanity vs isolation, which refers to the recognition that imperfection and failure are normal parts of life, as opposed to feeling separated and disconnected from other individuals in difficult times; and (c) mindfulness vs over-identification, which entails holding painful emotions and thoughts in balanced awareness, instead of avoiding, suppressing or over-identifying with them (Neff 2003a, see Table 1)

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