A Pilot Study of a Mindfulness Intervention for Adolescents and the Potential Role of Self-Compassion in Reducing Stress

Abstract

Results indicated that mindfulness, self-compassion, perceived stress, and life satisfaction improved from pre-intervention to post-intervention. Further, self-compassion (taught within the mindfulness intervention) was negatively related to perceived stress post-intervention while controlling for baseline stress. These findings suggest that mindfulness may be an effective intervention for improving indicators of emotional well-being among an adolescent population. Additionally, self-compassion may be a pathway through which youth can lower stress. Future research should examine self-compassion as a potential factor in promoting emotional well-being.

The Effectiveness of a Brief Self-Compassion Intervention Program on Self-Compassion, Positive and Negative Affect and Life Satisfaction

“…In other words, that means that people who were trained in order to be more self-compassionate, having a non self-critical attitude and a positive perspective towards demanding and difficult situations seem to achieve a better life evaluation. This corroborates a plethora of previous evidence (Neely, et al, 2009;Seligowski, Miron, & Orcutt, 2014;Van Dam, Sheppard, Forsyth, & Earleywine, 2011;Wei, et al, 2011;Yang, 2016) suggesting that high self-compassion may lead to important life satisfaction benefits, which has also been tested and confirmed through recent intervention plans (Bluth, Roberson, & Gaylord, 2015;. However, although Smeets and colleagues' (2014) 3-week self-compassion intervention yielded increases in life satisfaction scores for both groups intervention and control group, this study did not find differences in life satisfaction scores for the control group that received no training.…”

“…The program includes techniques such as loving-kindness, affectionate breathing, self-compassionate letter etc and participants reported increases in self-compassion (by 43%), compassion for others, mindfulness and life satisfaction, as well as significant decreases in depression, anxiety, stress, and emotional avoidance, while those results were consistent to the ones acquired one year after. A similar research of Bluth, Roberson, & Gaylord (2015) explored the effects of mindfulness intervention on emotional well-being in a sample of adolescents.…”

Age and Gender Differences in the Associations of Self-Compassion and Emotional Well-being in A Large Adolescent Sample

“…Additionally, as these internalizing symptoms are greater among older adolescent females (Merikangas et al, 2010), we expected older females to have lower self-compassion than males of the same age or younger adolescent females. As self-compassion serves as a protective factor and buffers against such negative emotional states as depression and stress (Bluth, Roberson & Gaylord, 2015; Muris, 2016; Raes, 2011), we also expected that self-compassion would be differentially associated with these constructs across age and gender. Further, prior research (Bluth and Blanton, 2015) provides some support for these differences.…”

The Effectiveness of a Pilot Self-Compassion Program on Well Being Components

“…The results indicated increases in selfcompassion, compassion for others, mindfulness and life satisfaction, as well as significant decreases in depression, anxiety, stress, and emotional avoidance, up to one year after the intervention. On the same line, Bluth, Roberson, & Gaylord (2015) explored the effects of a mindfulness intervention on the emotional wellbeing of a sample of adolescents. The results indicated improvements in mindfulness, self-compassion, stress and life satisfaction.…”