@article{ref1,
title="Effects of a mindfulness-based intervention on self-compassion and psychological health among young adults with a history of childhood maltreatment",
journal="Frontiers in psychology",
year="2019",
author="Joss, Diane and Khan, Alaptagin and Lazar, Sara W. and Teicher, Martin H.",
volume="10",
number="",
pages="e2373-e2373",
abstract="BACKGROUND: Individuals who were maltreated during childhood are faced with increased risks for developing various psychological symptoms that are particularly resistant to traditional treatments. This pilot study investigated the effects of a mindfulness based behavioral intervention for young adults with a childhood maltreatment history. <br><br>METHODS: This study looked at self-report psychological questionnaires from 20 subjects (5 males) before and after a mindfulness-based behavioral intervention, compared to 18 subjects (6 males) in the waiting list control group (age range 22-29); all subjects experienced mild-to-moderate childhood maltreatment. We analyzed changes in stress, anxiety, depression, mindfulness and self-compassion related to the intervention with linear mixed effects models; we also analyzed the relationships among questionnaire score changes with partial correlation analyses and mediation analysis. <br><br>RESULTS: Linear mixed effects model analyses revealed significant group by time interaction on stress (<i>p</i> < 0.01), anxiety (<i>p</i> < 0.05), and self-compassion (<i>p</i> < 0.01), with the mindfulness group having significant reduction in stress and anxiety (<i>p</i> < 0.01), and significant increase in mindfulness (<i>p</i> < 0.05) and self-compassion (<i>p</i> < 0.001). Partial correlation analyses showed that among all subjects from both groups, changes in mindfulness positively correlated with changes in self-compassion (<i>r</i> = 0.578, <i>p</i> = 0.001), which negatively correlated with changes in depression (<i>r</i> = -0.374, <i>p</i> = 0.05) and anxiety (<i>r</i> = -0.395, <i>p</i> < 0.05). Changes in self-compassion mediated, in part, the relationship between changes in mindfulness and changes in anxiety (average causal mediation effect = -4.721, <i>p</i> < 0.05). We observed a dose-dependent effect of the treatment, i.e., the number of intervention sessions attended were negatively correlated with changes in stress (<i>r</i> = -0.674, <i>p</i> < 0.01), anxiety (<i>r</i> = -0.580, <i>p</i> < 0.01), and depression (<i>r</i> = -0.544, <i>p</i> < 0.05), after controlling for the individual differences in childhood maltreatment severity. <br><br>CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that, to some extent, the mindfulness-based intervention can be helpful for improving self-compassion and psychological health among young adults with a childhood maltreatment history. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: www.ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier NCT02447744.<br><br>Copyright © 2019 Joss, Khan, Lazar and Teicher.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1664-1078",
doi="10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02373",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02373"
}