Self-compassion is more effective than acceptance and reappraisal in decreasing depressed mood in currently and formerly depressed individuals

Abstract

Background: Self-compassion has recently been discussed as an effective affect regulation strategy for reducing negative affective states. The primary aim of the current study was to compare the efficacy of self-compassion to the more established strategies of acceptance and reappraisal.

Methods: For this purpose, we induced depressed mood in formerly, currently and never depressed individuals (n=30 each) at four different time-points. Participants were instructed to regulate their emotions after each mood induction by either waiting, employing self-compassion, accepting their emotions or reappraising the situation. Level of depressed mood was assessed before and after each mood induction and regulation phase.

Results: Across groups, decreases in depressed mood were greater in the self-compassion compared to the waiting and acceptance conditions. In recovered and never depressed participants, self-compassion was also more effective than reappraisal.

Limitations: Our results rely solely on self-report data.

Conclusions: Our finding that self-compassion is superior to acceptance and equally or more effective than reappraisal encourages future research on how self-compassion interventions can be used to enhance the efficacy and stability of current depression treatments.

Keywords: Affect regulation; Depression; Self-compassion; Vulnerability.