Sexual minorities, or those who do not identify as straight, experience stigma that has been associated with a number of health issues and decreased quality of life. The current study expands on previous explanations of the relationship between stigma experienced by sexual minorities and quality of life by examining self-compassion and authenticity as potential mediators. We proposed and examined a mediation model in which self-compassion and authenticity would explain the relationship between stigma and quality of life, using data from a sample of 213 sexual minorities. Results of structural equation modeling revealed that there was no direct relationship between public stigma and quality of life but that public stigma and quality of life were indirectly related through internalized stigma, authenticity, and self-compassion. These findings have implications for the understanding of sexual minority experience of stigma and highlight potential points of intervention for increasing quality of life among sexual minority individuals.

Individuals with fibromyalgia report lower levels of health-related quality of life (HRQL) compared to other chronically ill populations and interpersonal factors (i.e., social support) may influence risk. What is less understood is how intrapersonal factors (i.e., self-compassion) may impact the social support-HRQL linkage. We examined the association between social support and HRQL in a sample of persons with fibromyalgia and tested the potential mediating role of self-compassion. Self-identified adults in the United States with fibromyalgia (N = 508) were recruited from state, regional, and national organizations and support groups and completed an online battery of self-report questionnaires including: Multidimensional Health Profile-Psychosocial Functioning Index, Short-Form 36 Health Survey, and Self-Compassion Scale-Short Form. Individuals with greater subjective social support reported higher levels of self-compassion and, in turn, higher mental HRQL. These findings provide greater information about psychosocial constructs and HRQL and extend our understanding of self-compassion among individuals living with fibromyalgia.

This mixed-methods study sought to examine the impact of learning the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model on novice therapists' self-of-the-therapist work. Criterion sampling was used to recruit participants enrolled in an IFS graduate course in Virginia Tech's Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) Program. Participants completed three sets of questionnaires (Self-Compassion Scale, Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire, and Professional Quality of Life Scale V. 5) both before and after completing the course. Twelve of the 23 participants volunteered to contribute to the qualitative portion of this study in semi-structured focus groups or individual interviews. The qualitative data were analyzed using grounded theory to assist in building theory for whether and how IFS can build awareness of internal process and increased self-compassion in novice therapists, therefore contributing to their self-of-the-therapist work. The quantitative data reported an increase in Self-Kindness, Common Humanity, Mindfulness, ability to Describe one's experience, ability to Act with Awareness, and the ability to be Nonjudgmental and Nonreactive of one's experience after participants completed the IFS course. The quantitative data reported a decrease in participants' Self-Judgment, Over-identification, and Secondary Traumatic Stress after completing the IFS course. The qualitative data supported these findings. The themes that emerged for the qualitative data were an increase in Self-Leadership, Improved Relationships, and an increase in Self-Compassion. Overall, participants reported gaining greater awareness of their internal process and increasing their ability to be self-compassionate, which they report impacted and contributed to their self-of-the-therapist work. Limitations, clinical and training implications, and future directions for research are discussed. / Master of Science

Although the experience of trauma is associated with a great deal of psychological distress, it may also lead to meaningful positive change, known as posttraumatic growth (PTG), evidenced as progression in areas of life appreciation, intimacy in relationships, sense of personal strength, new possibilities, and spiritual development. Utilizing an acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) perspective, the current study explored whether self-compassion helped to explain the willingness to approach and make sense of a trauma, leading to growth. A sample of 758 undergraduate students completed online self-report questionnaires, and results suggested that self-compassion does partially predict PTG and support for how self-compassion may be understood in relation to PTG is provided. Implications of the current study's findings, as well as suggestions for future research related to trauma within a college population, are discussed.

In the current study, I examined the efficacy of mindful self-compassion, imagery, and goal-setting (i.e., treatment as usual) interventions on athletic identity, knee self-efficacy, subjective knee functioning, and perceived injustice, following ACL surgery. Twenty-nine adolescent and young adult athletes participated in the interventions and completed self-report measures assessing each of these constructs prior to their surgery and over seven weeks post-ACL surgery. HLM analyses demonstrated significant decreases in athletic identity and increases in subjective knee functioning from pre-surgery through seven weeks post-surgery. Intervention group further explained these decreases, though no one intervention clearly emerged as more or less beneficial. No significant changes were observed for athletes' ratings of knee self-efficacy or perceived injustice. Limitations and areas for future research are discussed.

No description available.

No description available.

Rates of depression, anxiety, and stress have been increasing and college students are especially at risk. College counseling centers often have long waitlists and have difficulty addressing the growing need for psychotherapy. Researchers have suggested that depression and anxiety may arise because of low levels of eudaimonia and self-compassion. Depression and anxiety not only have a toll on mental health but on physical health as well, as researchers have observed decreased HRV in individuals with depression and anxiety. To address the disparity between available resources and treatment need, applied mental health classes were developed to see if teaching psychotherapeutic principles in the classroom setting would lead to decreases in depression, anxiety, stress, and improvements in eudaimonia, gratitude, self-compassion, and HRV. Data was collected from students in the applied mental health classes and were compared to a control group of students who were not in those classes. HRV was measured twice (beginning and end of the academic semester), and questionnaire data was collected three times (beginning, middle, and end of the academic semester). A total of 44 students (86% female) were recruited from the applied mental health classes with 34 completing the whole study and 190 students (62% female) were recruited for the control group with 76 completing the study. SEM was used to analyze change across time for each of these variables. There were not significant changes in distress, eudaimonia, gratitude, self-compassion, or HRV across the semester in both the experimental and control group. More specifically, the students in both the applied mental health class and control group were not significantly distressed at baseline and had high HRV. There were many ceiling and floor effects in this sample which left little room for improvement. Testing this class in a more distressed sample will help elucidate the impact that these classes can have.

Research identifies male athletes as a subpopulation at risk for developing eating disorders and disordered eating (ED/DE). Petrie and Greenleaf's sociocultural model proposes that various correlates contribute to the etiology of ED/DE in athletes. Among the correlates, body satisfaction has been identified as a direct precursor to ED/DE symptomatology in male and female athletes. Recent research has noted self-compassion's utility in alleviating the outcomes of poor body image and ED/DE through several pathways. However, researchers have yet to examine self-compassion in relation to body satisfaction and ED/DE in male athletes or the temporal relationship between these variables. This study longitudinally examined the direct and indirect effects of self-compassion on body satisfaction and ED/DE symptomatology in a mixed-sport sample of 452 male collegiate athletes by testing the cross-lagged, temporal relationships among self-compassion, body satisfaction, and ED/DE symptomatology across a four-month time frame. Time 1 self-compassion was neither directly related to Time 2 body satisfaction (β = 0.02, p = .755), nor indirectly to Time 2 ED/DE (β = -0.002, 95% BCaCI [-0.028, 0.014]) when controlling for Time 1 scores. Recent research supports my finding and suggests that the effects of self-compassion on body satisfaction and ED/DE symptomatology may be dependent on gender. In contrast, Time 2 body satisfaction was directly related to Time 2 ED/DE (β = -0.12, p < 0.05), which adds to a substantial body of research in that body satisfaction is a primary antecedent to ED/DE.

Graduate students in mental health service training programs are at risk of experiencing burnout. Using adult attachment theory as the guiding framework, this study examined a conceptual model which depicted the direct and indirect effect of attachment insecurity on burnout and the subsequent psychological distress via low self-compassion and emotion regulation difficulty with two cultural samples recruited from the U.S. and Taiwan, respectively. The final sample included 216 U.S. mental health graduate trainees and 201 Taiwanese trainees. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. Findings from the final models best supported by the data revealed that in both cultural groups, attachment anxiety contributed to lower self-compassion which subsequently resulted in greater burnout and that emotion regulation did not play a mediational role in the models. Results also demonstrated cultural differences in several paths of the research model. For the U.S. sample, only higher attachment anxiety indirectly contributed to more psychological distress through low self-compassion and burnout was best positioned as an outcome variable similar to psychological distress, instead of being a mediator. For the Taiwanese sample, on the other hand, both attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance demonstrated significant indirect effects on higher psychological distress through lower self-compassion and burnout was a 2nd tired mediator through which attachment anxiety indirectly contributed to higher psychological distress. These findings advanced our understanding of the role of adult attachment insecurity in the development of burnout and psychological distress for graduate trainees in mental health fields, as well as the possible cultural differences in the observed variables and their relations. Counseling implications, limitations, and future research directions were discussed.