Self-compassionate reflective writing for affect regulation in Australian perinatal women

Abstract

The current study investigated the effect of a brief online self-compassionate reflective writing task on affect regulation in a sample of Australian perinatal women. Participants were 55 women (M_age = 35.47, SD = 3.79) who were pregnant (16.4%) and/or had an infant <24 months old (76.4%). State self-compassion, positive and negative affect, and future help-seeking behavior intentions were compared at pre- and post-intervention while controlling for trait self-compassion. Inductive thematic analysis was used to extract themes regarding why participants deemed the intervention helpful or unhelpful. As hypothesized, global state self-compassion and intention to engage in self-care behavior were higher, and negative affect was lower, immediately post-intervention relative to pre-intervention scores. Follow-up subscale analyses revealed that the mechanisms of the shift in state self-compassion scores were via reduced self-judgment and overidentification and increased common humanity. There was no significant change in positive affect or intention to engage in help-seeking behavior. Most participants (75%) indicated that the task was helpful with themes identified as written format, changed perspective, dedicating time to reflect, improved mood, and practicing self-kindness. Self-compassionate reflective writing may be a brief and accessible psychosocial approach with the potential to foster healthy emotion regulation and coping among perinatal women.