The Independent, Joint, and Additive Associations of Physical Activity and Self-Compassion on Depression Symptoms Among Chinese College Students

Influences on the Development of Self-compassion in Adolescents

“…It has been found that individuals who experienced physical as well as emotional abuse or neglect in childhood have lower levels of self-compassion. Because individuals who experience childhood abuse often make stable internal attributions about the abuse experience, believing that the abuse experience is self-inflicted and stable, leading to selfblame and self-shame, self-compassion is a protective factor against traumatic stress disorder after experiencing adversity in childhood [9] When adolescents had more warm and secure memories of their childhood, it was significantly associated with higher self-compassion and a positive sense of social security, and adolescents who had a strained family relationship or who had experienced criticism from their mothers had lower self-compassion, whereas adolescents who had been supported by their mothers or who came from a functioning family had higher levels of self-compassion [10]. Thus, even for adolescents with negative childhood experiences, the resulting negative effects can be reduced through self-compassion, which in turn promotes adolescent mental health.…”