Self-Compassion, Stress, and Coping

By A. Allen, Mark R. Leary. Social & Personality Psychology Compass, 2010

718 citations recorded by the source corpus.

People who are high in self-compassion treat themselves with kindness and concern when they experience negative events. The present article examines the construct of self-compassion from the standpoint of research on coping in an effort to understand the ways in which people who are high in self-compassion cope with stressful events. Self-compassionate people tend to rely heavily on positive cognitive restructuring but do not appear to differ from less self-compassionate people in the degree to which they cope through problem-solving and distraction. Existing evidence does not show clear differences in the degree to which people who are low vs. high in self-compassion seek support as a coping strategy, but more research is needed.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/4077e1d9bd469c2f98d4e69f570bb2dc86c4fa24

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In Clinical Psychology

In Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

Citations in the corpus

The Contaminating Effects of Building Instrumental Ties (2014, background): “Even when another person’s behavior does not notably affect them in any tangible way, people nonetheless react strongly to the violation of norms of politeness and respect (Lind and Tyler, 1988; Greenberg, 1994; Allen and Leary, 2010).”
Relating Mindfulness, Heartfulness, and Psychological Well-Being: the Role of Self-Compassion and Gratitude (2018, background): “Mindfulness is also associated with lesser degrees of over-identification, avoidance strategies, and judgmental attitudes, and these psychological processes are part of a self-compassionate attitude (Allen and Leary 2010).”
Positive psychology in a pandemic: buffering, bolstering, and building mental health (2021, background): “In fact, self-compassion involves being more willing to experience difficult feelings and to acknowledge them as valid and important (Allen & Leary, 2010).”
Individual Differences in Self-Compassion: The Role of Attachment and Experiences of Parenting in Childhood (2015, background): “Interestingly, self-compassion is negatively associated with avoidant coping (Allen & Leary, 2010; Neff, Hsieh, & Dejitterat, 2005) and experiential avoidance (Thompson & Waltz, 2008), both of which are key features of attachment avoidance (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2007a).”
Self-compassion and psychological well-being among adolescents in Hong Kong: Exploring gender differences (2016, background): “…benefited various aspects of positive functioning, serving as strong predictors of hedonic forms of well-being characterized by subjective happiness (Hollis-Walker & Colosimo, 2011; Neff, Kirkpatrick, & Rude, 2007), positive affect (Neff & Vonk, 2009) and life satisfaction (Allen & Leary, 2010).”
Procrastination and Stress: Exploring the Role of Self-compassion (2014, positive): “Self-compassion is also associated with the use of adaptive coping strategies such as cognitive restructuring, which may help reduce stress (Allen & Leary, 2010), and is negatively associated with avoidance-oriented coping strategies (Neff, Hsieh, & Dejitterat, 2005).”
Self-compassion, self-regulation, and health (2011, background): “In a variety of domains—personal rejection, unfavorable evaluations, and academic and interpersonal difficulties—self-compassion is associated with lower depression and anxiety and greater coping (Allen & Leary, 2010; Neff, 2003b, Leary et al., 2007).”
The Misunderstood Schema of the Strong Black Woman: Exploring Its Mental Health Consequences and Coping Responses Among African American Women (2020, background): “For example, self-compassion can rejuvenate one’s emotional energy and help one cope with life challenges (A. B. Allen & Leary, 2010).”
Self-Compassion and Bedtime Procrastination: an Emotion Regulation Perspective (2018, neutral): “Self-compassion is associated with fewer physical symptoms (Dunne et al. 2016; Terry et al. 2013), lower perceived stress (Allen and Leary 2010; Homan and Sirois 2017; Sirois et al. 2015b) and attenuated physiological responses to stress (Arch et al. 2014; Breines et al. 2014).”
Self-compassion as a Buffer against Homesickness, Depression, and Dissatisfaction in the Transition to College (2013, background): “The tendency to respond with self compassion and treat oneself kindly in the face of difficulties clearly benefited students during the transition to college, suggesting that self-compassion may be viewed as a useful tactic for coping with negative events (Allen & Leary, 2010 ; Neff, 2011 ; Sbarra”
Self-Compassion When Coping With Venture Obstacles: Loving-Kindness Meditation and Entrepreneurial Fear of Failure (2019, methodology): “…rather than restrict entrepreneurial action.2 A significant body of empirical research in psychology shows that self- compassion fends off negative affect associated with stressful or demoralizing events (Allen & Leary, 2010; Leary et al., 2007; Sbarra et al., 2012; Tugade & Fredrickson, 2004).”
The relevance of self‐compassion as an intervention target in mood and anxiety disorders: A narrative review based on an emotion regulation framework (2017, background): “…in the literature that self-compassion is associated with an increased tendency to engage in cognitive reframing of difficult situations (Batts Allen & Leary, 2010), this has not been studied in the context of depression and anxiety, and the implications of the extant research for these…”
Self-compassion, Interpersonal Conflict Resolutions, and Well-being (2013, background): “This is because self-compassionate individuals have been found to have more authentic and intrinsic motivation (Neff, 2003a ; Neff et al, 2005 ), greater emotional resilience in challenging situations (Allen & Leary, 2010 ), and relationship satisfaction with romantic partners (Neff & Beretvas, i”