Citation

Hamrick LA, Owens GP. J. Clin. Psychol. (Hoboken) 2019; 75(4): 766-779.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/jclp.22730

PMID

30552686

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The present study investigated the associations between self-compassion, self-blame, disengagement coping, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression symptom severity among females who had experienced sexual assault. We also examined whether the relationships between self-compassion and both PTSD and depression severity were mediated by self-blame and coping.

METHOD: A volunteer sample of female adults (N = 207) completed surveys online or on paper.

RESULTS: Mediational analyses showed that higher self-compassion was associated with lower behavioral self-blame, characterological self-blame (CSB), and disengagement coping which, in turn, were associated with less PTSD. Higher self-compassion was associated with less depression severity directly and indirectly via CSB.

CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that self-compassion may be relevant for understanding postassault mental health, partially through its associations with self-blame and coping. Clinicians working with sexual assault survivors may choose to augment treatment-as-usual with interventions designed to increase self-compassion.

© 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Language: en

Keywords

PTSD; disengagement coping; self-blame; self-compassion; sexual assault