(PS2-A18) Self-compassion and Internalizing Symptoms in Emerging Adults: The Unique Role of Expressive Suppression

Self-compassion has been associated with reduced internalizing symptoms in emerging adults, including social anxiety and depressive symptoms (Stutts et al., 2018). It is a promising protective factor that entails treating oneself with warmth and care in response to personal struggles (Neff, 2018). Although research has demonstrated the positive benefits of self-compassion, the mechanisms for how it relates to internalizing symptoms are not well understood. This promising research suggests emotion regulation, the ability to influence the experience and expression of emotions, may be a key process through which self-compassion influences internalizing symptoms (Gross, 2015; Inwood & Ferrari, 2018).

Emotion regulation strategies, cognitive reappraisal (CR) and expressive suppression (ES), are strong predictors of internalizing symptoms and may mediate the association between self-compassion and internalizing symptoms (Dryman & Heimberg, 2018). The present study tested the mediating effects of CR and ES on the relationships of self-compassion and social anxiety and depressive symptoms. Undergraduate students (N = 434) aged 18-24 (M = 18.85, SD = 1.17) were recruited from a rural New England university. Participants completed the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS; Neff, 2003), Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ; Gross & John, 2003), Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS; Mattick & Clarke, 1998) and Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale-Revised (CESD-R; Eaton et al., 2004). Questionnaires were administered via Qualtrics. All correlations were significant and in the expected directions (p’s < .001).

Two parallel mediation analyses were conducted using PROCESS Model 4 (Hayes, 2018). The first model accounted for 38.86% of the variance in social anxiety symptoms (R2 = 0.3886, F(3, 430) = 91.08, p < .001), while the second model accounted for 38.02% of the variance in depressive symptoms (R2 = 0.3802, F(3, 430) = 87.93, p < .001). ES was the only emotion regulation strategy that was a significant mediator in both models (b = -.74, 95%CI -1.29, -.29 and b = -.51, 95%CI -.10, -.01, respectively).

Self-compassion positively predicted CR, and negatively predicted ES, social anxiety and depressive symptoms. ES positively predicted both social anxiety and depression symptoms, while CR was not significant. Consistent with previous research, self-compassion had a strong influence on social anxiety and depressive symptoms (e.g., Bates et al., 2021; Diedrich et al., 2016). Higher self-compassion predicted lower internalizing symptoms both directly and indirectly through lower ES. Higher self-compassion also predicted higher CR. Contrary to expectation, CR was not a direct means of reducing internalizing symptoms, nor was it an indirect pathway whereby self-compassion reduced internalizing symptoms. Our findings suggest that higher self-compassion may alleviate internalizing symptoms and that ES is an important mechanism of that influence. Future studies may consider using a longitudinal design to establish temporal relationships and examine the effects of increasing self-compassion to decrease internalizing symptoms in a clinical sample of emerging adults.