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

- Experimental evaluation of self-compassion as a strategy to decrease low mood.
- Self-compassion was effective in healthy, depressed and recovered individuals.
- Across groups, self-compassion was superior to an acceptance condition.
- Self-compassion was equally or more effective than reappraisal.

BackgroundSelf-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.MethodsFor 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.ResultsAcross 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.LimitationsOur 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.