Objectives: Attachment insecurity and lower levels of compassion are both linked to psychopathology. There is a growing interest in the foundations of compassionate abilities, which may be rooted in attachment experiences. This systematic review aimed to explore the association between attachment and compassion. Method: A systematic search was conducted on 18th May 2018 using PsycInfo, Medline, EMBASE, Google Scholar, Psychology and Behavioural Sciences and the Cochrane Library to identify papers that examined any association between attachment and compassion in the past 10 years. Reference lists of identified papers were also searched. Articles were screened for inclusion by scrutiny of abstract and methodology. Findings were synthesised and effect sizes calculated where possible. Results: Ten studies were identified representing 12 samples. Significant associations were noted between both attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance and lower levels of compassion (Mr = -0.37 and Mr = -0.31) respectively. Conclusions: Greater attachment insecurity is associated with lower self-compassion. Evidence implicates attachment insecurity and compassion in psychopathology, and wellbeing. Future work is needed to explore the causal links between different attachment and compassion dimensions.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:754405 |
| Date | January 2018 |
| Creators | Singer, Kathleen |
| Publisher | University of Glasgow |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://theses.gla.ac.uk/30803/ |
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