Self-compassion mediates the relationship between self-esteem and social anxiety symptoms in socially anxious individuals

Abstract

IntroductionFear of evaluation and a negative view of the self are the key characteristics of social anxiety, which is one the most prevalent anxiety problem. Self-esteem refers to views of oneself, including individual’s personal feelings towards self, whereas self-compassion refers to caring attitude toward oneself. Both constructs are two distinct positive views of the self, and were found to be related to each other, well-being and good mental health. To date, however, little is known, how they interplay in people with predominantly negative view of themselves, that is in socially anxious individuals.ObjectivesThe current research aims at evaluating how social anxiety interacts with self-esteem and self-compassion and to assess whether self-compassion, mediates the relationship between social anxiety and self-esteem.MethodsIn this research, 388 adult participants with elevated social anxiety level (LSAS score M = 81.47, SD = 21.20) were recruited via open calls posted on the Internet and completed measures of social anxiety, self-compassion, and self-esteem.ResultsIn accordance with the view that individuals with social anxiety tend to have negative mental representation of the self, we found that both self-esteem and self-compassion correlated negatively with social anxiety, and positively with one another. More importantly, self-compassion partially mediates the relationship between self-esteem and social anxiety.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that self-compassion may play an important role in buffering against social anxiety and suggest that enhancing self-compassion might be beneficial for reducing symptoms of social anxietyDisclosureNo significant relationships.