| Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 889906 | Personality and Individual Differences | 2016 | 6 Pages |
•The relation between social support and PTSD was mediated by self-compassion.•Association between social support and depression was mediated by self-compassion.•Association between social support and GAD was mediated by self-compassion.•Social support may protect against psychopathology via self-compassion.
Following a traumatic event, external resources such as social support facilitate recovery. The mechanism underlying this relation is not well understood, however. Self-compassion is a positive coping strategy that has been negatively related to post-trauma psychopathology in prior work. It was hypothesized that the external resource of social support increased the internal resource of self-compassion, which resulted in decreased psychopathology. The current study tested the hypothesis that the association between social support and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and depression symptoms had an indirect pathway via self-compassion. Using a community sample of individuals exposed to potentially traumatic events, social support was positively related to self-compassion. Self-compassion was negatively related to PTSD, GAD, and depression symptoms. Self-compassion mediated the relation between social support and PTSD, GAD, and depression symptoms. These results suggest that social support may reduce symptoms of PTSD, GAD, and depression through increased self-compassion in those who experienced a trauma.
