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Age and Gender Differences in the Associations of Self-Compassion and Emotional Well-Being in a Large Adolescent Sample

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Age and Gender Differences in the Associations of Self-Compassion and Emotional Well-Being in a Large Adolescent Sample J Youth Adolescence DOI 10.1007/s10964-016-0567-2 EMPIRICAL RESEARCH Age and Gender Differences in the Associations of Self-Compassion and Emotional Well-being in A Large Adolescent Sample 1 1 2 1 Karen Bluth ● Rebecca A. Campo ● William S. Futch ● Susan A. Gaylord Received: 12 June 2016 / Accepted: 31 August 2016 © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016 Abstract Adolescence is a challenging developmental Keywords Self-compassion ● Emotional well-being ● period marked with declines in emotional well-being; Depression ● Anxiety ● Perceived stress ● Distress intolerance ● however, self-compassion has been suggested as a protec- Mindfulness tive factor. This cross-sectional survey study (N = 765, grades 7th to 12th; 53 % female; 4 % Hispanic ethnicity; 64 % White and 21 % Black) examined whether adolescents’ self-compassion differed by age and gender, and secondly, Introduction whether its associations with emotional well-being (per- ceived stress, life satisfaction, distress intolerance, depres- Successful negotiation of the challenges in adolescence is sive symptoms, and anxiety) also differed by age and crucial for adolescents’ health and emotional well-being in gender. The findings indicated that older females had the adulthood. During this developmental period, key shifts lowest self-compassion levels compared to younger females occur in physiology, including hormonal changes and or all-age males. Self-compassion was associated with all maturation of brain structure and function, cognitive emotional well-being measures, and gender and/or age capabilities (i.e., growth in metacognition and abstract moderated the associations with anxiety and depressive thinking), and emotional expression (i.e., increase in emo- symptoms. Among older adolescents, self-compassion had tional volatility and depressive symptomatology) (Giedd a greater protective effect on anxiety for boys than for girls. 2008; Keating 2004; Susman and Dorn 2009). This Additionally, older adolescents with low and average self- vulnerable period is also characterized by increased mani- compassion had greater levels of depressive symptoms than festation of psychopathologies such as anxiety, depression, those with high self-compassion. These results may inform conduct disorders, substance abuse, and phobias (Costello for whom and at what age self-compassion interventions et al. 2003), with gender-associated differences often found may be implemented to protect adolescents from further in their prevalence, presentation, and timing (Copeland declines in emotional well-being. et al. 2011; Zahn-Waxler et al. 2008). While subject to biological predispositions, these psychopathologies may be triggered or exacerbated by acute and chronic stressors that occur in childhood and adolescence, such as poverty, par- ental conflict and divorce, school transitions, and commu- * Karen Bluth nity disasters. Once established during adolescence, such [email protected] disorders become risk factors for adult psychopathology 1 (Hayden and Mash 2014). Therefore, successful navigation Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, CB 7200, of this vulnerable period is crucial for success over School of Medicine, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill 27599, USA the lifespan, and entails a combination of personality pre- dispositions, health-promoting behaviors, and social 2 Department of Allied Sciences, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, 321 S Columbia St., Chapel Hill, support. Examples of protective factors for psychopathol- NC 27599, USA ogy over the life course include psychological factors J Youth Adolescence (i.e., temperament, intelligence, high self-esteem and self- and affective symptoms, including depressive symptoms efficacy, positive coping strategies, high distress tolerance, and worry, in undergraduate students, over a two-week and resilience), familial factors (i.e., positive parenting, period (Macatee et al. 2016). spiritual beliefs, and availability of resources), and com- munity factors (i.e., caring community relationships and Self-Compassion positive role models). These factors are interrelated and often reciprocal in terms of cause and effect (Mash and One promising protective and ameliorating psychological Barkley, 2014). factor in adolescent populations is self-compassion, defined According to Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological frame- as non-judgmentally connecting with one’s own suffering work, individual development occurs through the interplay and failure as an inherent aspect of being human, and taking of the individual and her contexts, and the interrelationships an active role in self-soothing when experiencing emotional among those contexts (Bronfenbrennner 1979, Bronfen- challenges (Neff 2003). The concept of self-compassion brenner and Morris 2006). Thus, the aforementioned bio- differs from self-esteem, which often involves comparing logical changes taking place within the individual (e.g., one’s abilities with others in a social hierarchy, whereas hormonal, brain, and cognitive development), microsystem self-compassion involves connecting with others in appre- level changes (e.g., school transitions, shifts in family, and ciation of one’s equal footing in the human condition (Neff peer relationships), and macrosystem level changes (e.g., and McGehee 2010). Additionally, self-compassion is awareness of gender-role cultural expectations) interact to generally considered to be a positive coping strategy; create significant stressors for the adolescent. In addition, therefore, it may be associated with other similar positive given the reported link between stress and depression in coping strategies such as reappraisal, problem solving, and adolescence (Petersen et al. 1993), we would anticipate that acceptance (Allen and Leary 2010). Self-compassion is both an older adolescent who has faced more of these stressors a trait and a psychological process, and is self-generated would have a greater likelihood of experiencing emotional during times of emotional struggle. It is comprised of three challenges (i.e., comorbid internalizing symptoms such as interconnected dimensions: (1) Self-kindness, which entails depression, anxiety, perceived stress) or behavioral chal- taking an active role in cultivating care and warmth toward lenges (i.e., comorbid externalizing symptoms such as oneself; (2) appreciation of common humanity, or the substance use, conduct disorder) than a younger adolescent, understanding that there are underlying universal human who has not yet encountered these developmental changes; emotions that we all experience during challenging times, this has been well documented in adolescent literature and that these intimately connect us to other people; and (3) (Merikangas et al. 2010; Petersen 1982). Further, as meta- mindfulness, or the ability to attend to one’s momentary cognitive ability increases with adolescent age, and experience with a sense of emotional equanimity. Through adolescents become more introspective, egocentric and self- activating self-soothing behaviors, self-kindness addresses conscious, they may develop self-absorption tendencies, the precise feelings of emotional pain associated with including the “imaginary audience,” an extreme form of internalizing symptoms such as depression and anxiety. self-consciousness in which the adolescent believes she is Further, the common humanity component of self- the focus of others’ attention, and the “personal fable” compassion directly counters the adolescent phenomena of (Elkind 1967), the belief that the challenges and experiences the “personal fable,” as it assumes that one’s experiences they face are unique to them. Such self-absorption may lead are universal and part of the human experience. Finally, as to increases in rumination, particularly for females as they the mindfulness subcomponent of self-compassion focuses tend to ruminate more than males, which has been linked to on developing equanimity and present-centered awareness, depression and anxiety (Nolen-Hoeksema 2000). Finally, as we would expect those who are more mindful to engage less adolescents are increasingly able to think abstractly and see in rumination. a greater number of possible outcomes to situations, they Prior self-compassion research is consistent with these may have difficulty enacting productive strategies to cope expectations. In adult populations, multiple cross-sectional with stressful situations. In fact, nearly half of all adoles- studies have shown self-compassion to be negatively asso- cents report that they have difficulty dealing with stressors ciated with psychopathology (see MacBeth and Gumley 2012 related to home or school (Gans 1990) and this may con- for a meta-analysis) and positively associated with emotional tribute to increases in anxiety or depression (Petersen et al. well-being (see Zessin et al. 2015 for a meta-analysis). For 1993). Indeed, the inability to tolerate aversive somatic and instance, higher levels of self-compassion are associated with emotional states, known as distress intolerance, is linked greater life satisfaction, positive affect, and emotional intel- with a broad array of psychopathological symptoms and ligence and negatively associated with perceived stress, disorders (Leyro et al. 2010) and distress tolerance has been aggression, rumination, eating disorders, and symptoms of shown to moderate the relationship between daily stressors anxiety and depression (MacBeth and Gumley 2012; J Youth Adolescence Neff et al. 2007; Zessin et al. 2015). Fewer studies
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