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Self-compassion mediates the relationship between self-esteem and social anxiety symptoms in socially anxious individuals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2021

P. Holas ,
M. Kowalczyk ,
I. Krejtz ,
K. Wisiecka  and
T. Jankowski
P. Holas*
Affiliation:
Faculty Of Psychology, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland Department Of Psychology, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
M. Kowalczyk
Affiliation:
Psychology, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warsaw, Poland
I. Krejtz
Affiliation:
Psychology, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warsaw, Poland
K. Wisiecka
Affiliation:
Psychology, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warsaw, Poland
T. Jankowski
Affiliation:
Psychology, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Lublin, Poland
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

Fear of evaluation and a negative view of the self are the key characteristics of social anxiety, which is one the most prevalent anxiety problem. Self-esteem refers to views of oneself, including individual’s personal feelings towards self, whereas self-compassion refers to caring attitude toward oneself. Both constructs are two distinct positive views of the self, and were found to be related to each other, well-being and good mental health. To date, however, little is known, how they interplay in people with predominantly negative view of themselves, that is in socially anxious individuals.

Objectives

The current research aims at evaluating how social anxiety interacts with self-esteem and self-compassion and to assess whether self-compassion, mediates the relationship between social anxiety and self-esteem.

Methods

In this research, 388 adult participants with elevated social anxiety level (LSAS score M = 81.47, SD = 21.20) were recruited via open calls posted on the Internet and completed measures of social anxiety, self-compassion, and self-esteem.

Results

In accordance with the view that individuals with social anxiety tend to have negative mental representation of the self, we found that both self-esteem and self-compassion correlated negatively with social anxiety, and positively with one another. More importantly, self-compassion partially mediates the relationship between self-esteem and social anxiety.

Conclusions

These findings suggest that self-compassion may play an important role in buffering against social anxiety and suggest that enhancing self-compassion might be beneficial for reducing symptoms of social anxiety

Disclosure

No significant relationships.

Keywords

social anxietySelf-compassionSADself-esteem
Type
Abstract
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 64 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 29th European Congress of Psychiatry , April 2021 , pp. S616 - S617
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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