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Mindfulness is known to decrease anger and aggression. Self-compassion is a related and relatively new construct that may predict other clinical outcomes more strongly than does mindfulness. Little research has focused on whether self-compassion is related to anger and aggression, and no studies have explored mechanisms of these associations. The current survey study explores whether angry rumination mediates the unique associations between self-compassion and anger and aggression, controlling for trait mindfulness. Two hundred and one undergraduates completed questionnaires assessing self-compassion, mindfulness, angry rumination, and recent anger and aggression. Supporting our hypotheses, angry rumination mediated the associations between self-compassion—particularly its over-identification subscale—and anger and aggression when controlling for mindfulness. Mindfulness did not predict angry rumination, recent anger, or aggression when controlling for self-compassion. Furthermore, multiple regression analyses predicting aggression-related variables indicated that angry rumination uniquely predicted over-identification, one of the six self-compassion subscales. These findings suggest that self-compassion, particularly a lack of cognitive and emotion fusion, may be a more proximal predictor of clinical outcomes than mindfulness. Implications for current conceptualizations and measures of mindfulness are discussed. Self-compassion may be useful for developing clinical interventions targeting anger and aggressive behavior.
Mindfulness reduces eating disorder (ED) psychopathology. Self-compassion is a related but distinct construct that may predict other clinical outcomes more strongly than does mindfulness. Previous evidence suggests that self-compassion is associated with less ED psychopathology, although no studies have compared the unique effects of self-compassion and mindfulness. Moreover, few studies have explored mechanisms of this association. The current survey study explored the unique association between self-compassion and ED psychopathology, controlling for mindfulness, as well as whether depressive rumination mediates this association. One hundred and ninety undergraduates completed questionnaires assessing self-compassion, mindfulness, depressive rumination, and ED psychopathology at baseline and five months later. In cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses, self-compassion predicted ED psychopathology even when controlling for mindfulness. By contrast, mindfulness did not predict ED psychopathology when controlling for self-compassion. Depressive rumination mediated the unique association between self-compassion and ED psychopathology in cross-sectional but not longitudinal analyses. The current findings suggest that self-compassion may be a more proximal predictor of ED psychopathology than is mindfulness. Additional research will need to further explore whether depressive rumination is a mechanism of this effect.