Exploring the Relationship between Rumination, Self-compassion, and Mood

Abstract

Self-compassion and rumination have been conceptualized as emotion regulation strategies, the former effective and the latter maladaptive, however, the relationship between these two approaches is largely unknown. This relationship was explored in 186 participants who completed a negative mood induction, and were randomly allocated to write about a negative event in either a self-compassionate or emotionally expressive way. Results showed that self-compassionate writing significantly predicted improved mood more so than writing in an emotionally expressive way. Greater rumination inhibited the degree to which mood improvements were made after writing, while trait self-compassion significantly predicted mood improvements. The present findings suggest that interventions to increase self-compassion can be therapeutically beneficial.