Adaptive emotion regulation mediates the relationship between self-compassion and depression in individuals with unipolar depression.

OBJECTIVES To identify the mechanisms involved in the association between self-compassion and depression, we examined whether adaptive emotion regulation would mediate the relationship between self-compassion and depression in individuals with unipolar depression. Furthermore, we explored which specific emotion regulation skills would be most important in this relationship. DESIGN AND METHOD Sixty-nine individuals with unipolar depression were assessed with the Self-Compassion Scale and the Emotion Regulation Skills Questionnaire at baseline and with the Beck Depression Inventory-II 1 week later. RESULTS The results showed that successful application of emotion regulation skills mediates the association between self-compassion and depression. Among eight specific emotion regulation skills, only the ability to tolerate negative emotions was identified as a significant mediator in the self-compassion-depression relationship. CONCLUSIONS These findings provide preliminary evidence that systematically fostering self-compassion might help depressed individuals cope with their symptoms by enhancing their abilities to tolerate undesired emotions. PRACTITIONER POINTS Systematically fostering self-compassion through specific compassion-focused interventions might facilitate a reduction in depressive symptoms by improving the person's emotion regulation abilities, especially by improving his or her ability to tolerate negative emotions. Hence, compassion-focused interventions might be particularly promising in depressed patients with a tendency to avoid negative emotions and deficits in tolerating them.