| Self-compassion refers to the ability to relate to one’s own experience with kindness and empathy,and it comprise of six core dimensions: self-kindness versus self-judgement,common humanity versus isolation,and mindfulness versus over-identification.Self-compassion is strongly positively associated with wellbeing and negatively with psychological symptoms,and researchers have developed self-compassion intervention programs,and the randomized controlled trials show that these programs have a useful effect.However,there are still many questions about how self-compassion improves psychological symptoms,especially the role of various components of self-compassion.For example,whether there is the most powerful component among the self-compassion components and whether there is the most therapeutic components among self-compassion components on the improvement of psychological symptoms.To answer these questions,this study applied network analysis to explore the potential therapeutic components of self-compassion in self-compassion components network and the bridge network between self-compassion and psychological symptoms,as well as the therapeutic components of self-compassion in the actual intervention.In order to answer these questions,this study used network analysis to explore the therapeutic components of self-compassion from the perspectives of central components and bridge components through a cross-sectional study and a randomized controlled trial.Study 1 was a cross-sectional study with 481 college students recruited.Their self-compassion,depression,anxiety,and perceived stress were measured.The self-compassion network and the bridge networks between self-compassion and psychological symptoms were constructed to explore the nodes of self-compassion with the highest centrality in the two kinds of networks.The results of the first study were as follows: in the self-compassion network,the nodes with the highest centrality were self-kindness and mindfulness,which indicated that these two components were more closely related to other components,and the positive and negative components of self-compassion were related to each other.In the bridge network,the nodes with the highest bridge centrality were over-identification and isolation,indicating that these two components were more closely related to psychological symptoms than other components.Study 2 was a randomized control trial.A total of 174 college students were randomly assigned to the intervention group and the waiting group.The intervention group was given a 4-week online self-compassion intervention,and they finished pre-post measurement and daily measurement,while the waiting group also finished pre-post measurement and daily measurement.The results of study 2a were as follows: In the self-compassion change network,the nodes with the highest centrality were over-identification and mindfulness,indicating that the changes of these two components were more closely related to the changes of other components.In the bridge network,the nodes with the highest bridge centrality were common humanity and over-identification,indicating that the changes of these two components were more closely related to the change of symptoms.The results of study 2b were as follows: in the temporal network of self-compassion,the nodes with the highest outdegree were mindfulness and common humanity,indicating that these three components had stronger effects on other components.In the contemporaneous network of self-compassion,the nodes with the highest centrality were mindfulness,self-kindness and common humanity,which indicated that the self-kindness and common humanity were more closely related to other components at the same time.In the depression bridge temporal network,the nodes with the highest bridge outdegree were self-kindness and self-judgment.In the anxiety bridge temporal network,the nodes with the highest bridge outdegree were mindfulness and common humanity,suggesting that individuals with higher/lower levels of these nodes would also cause lower/higher levels of symptoms.While in the stress bridge temporal network,no components predicted stress symptoms.In the bridge contemporaneous networks,the nodes with the highest bridge centrality include self-judgment,common humanity,and over-identification,meaning that individuals with higher/lower levels of these nodes will also have higher/lower levels of symptoms.In conclusion,mindfulness is the central component of self-compassion,and over-identification is the bridge component between self-compassion and psychological symptoms.These two components play an important therapeutic role in self-compassion intervention.This study contributes to the understanding of the construct of self-compassion and enlightens the psychological intervention of self-compassion. |
