{"title":"To avoid or not to avoid: impact of self-compassion on safety behaviors in social situations.","authors":"Kamila A Szczyglowski, Nancy L Kocovski","doi":"10.1080/10615806.2024.2307466","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background/objectives: </strong>Safety behaviors are commonly used to decrease anxiety in social settings but maintain anxiety. Self-compassion has been shown to reduce anxiety and rumination, but the impact on safety behaviors has not been examined. For the present studies, it was hypothesized that inducing self-compassion would lead to lower safety behaviors compared to controls.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>In Study 1 (<i>N</i> = 390), participants with elevated social anxiety recalled a distressing social situation, were randomly assigned to a self-compassionate (<i>n </i>= 186) or control (<i>n </i>= 204) writing exercise, and then reported predicted self-compassion and safety behaviors for a future situation. In Study 2 (<i>N</i> = 114), the impact of self-compassionate (<i>n </i>= 56) or control writing (<i>n</i> = 58) on safety behaviors was investigated during a Zoom interaction.</p><p><strong>Results/conclusions: </strong>In Study 1, as hypothesized, the self-compassion condition reported fewer expected avoidance behaviors compared to controls. In Study 2, state self-compassion and safety behaviors did not differ between conditions. In both studies, distress significantly mediated the relationship between condition and safety behaviors, such that the self-compassion condition reported significantly lower distress, which was associated with lower safety behaviors. Future research can examine whether reduced distress and safety behaviors allow for greater social connection.</p>","PeriodicalId":51415,"journal":{"name":"Anxiety Stress and Coping","volume":" ","pages":"587-601"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Anxiety Stress and Coping","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10615806.2024.2307466","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2024/1/25 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"PSYCHIATRY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background/objectives: Safety behaviors are commonly used to decrease anxiety in social settings but maintain anxiety. Self-compassion has been shown to reduce anxiety and rumination, but the impact on safety behaviors has not been examined. For the present studies, it was hypothesized that inducing self-compassion would lead to lower safety behaviors compared to controls.
Methods: In Study 1 (N = 390), participants with elevated social anxiety recalled a distressing social situation, were randomly assigned to a self-compassionate (n = 186) or control (n = 204) writing exercise, and then reported predicted self-compassion and safety behaviors for a future situation. In Study 2 (N = 114), the impact of self-compassionate (n = 56) or control writing (n = 58) on safety behaviors was investigated during a Zoom interaction.
Results/conclusions: In Study 1, as hypothesized, the self-compassion condition reported fewer expected avoidance behaviors compared to controls. In Study 2, state self-compassion and safety behaviors did not differ between conditions. In both studies, distress significantly mediated the relationship between condition and safety behaviors, such that the self-compassion condition reported significantly lower distress, which was associated with lower safety behaviors. Future research can examine whether reduced distress and safety behaviors allow for greater social connection.
期刊介绍:
This journal provides a forum for scientific, theoretically important, and clinically significant research reports and conceptual contributions. It deals with experimental and field studies on anxiety dimensions and stress and coping processes, but also with related topics such as the antecedents and consequences of stress and emotion. We also encourage submissions contributing to the understanding of the relationship between psychological and physiological processes, specific for stress and anxiety. Manuscripts should report novel findings that are of interest to an international readership. While the journal is open to a diversity of articles.