Citation

Gao Y, Liu X, Liu J, Wang H. Psychol. Res. Behav. Manag. 2023; 16: 3219-3230.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Dove Press)

DOI

10.2147/PRBM.S417258

PMID

37588251

PMCID

PMC10426444

Abstract

PURPOSE: Symptoms of depression increase during adolescence as do nonsuicidal self-injurious behaviors (NSSI). The present study aimed to investigate how self-criticism interacted with the effects of stressful life events on depressive symptoms and NSSI and whether self-compassion would buffer these negative effects.

METHODS: A total of 908 Chinese adolescents (Mage = 13.46, SD = 0.57) completed a cross-sectional survey. The main and interacted effects of stressful life events, self-criticism, self-compassion on depressive symptoms and NSSI were examined respectively.

RESULTS: The results showed that self-criticism significantly moderated the relationships between stressful events and depression and NSSI. Self-compassion could buffer the negative impacts of stressful events and self-criticism on NSSI but not on depression. High self-compassion significantly reduced the magnitude of the association between stressful life events and NSSI in adolescents with low self-criticism but not in those with high self-criticism.

CONCLUSION: Self-criticism exacerbated the negative impacts of stressful life events on both depressive symptoms and NSSI, but self-compassion only buffered the impact of stressful life events on NSSI. Interventions designed to reduce NSSI risk of Chinese adolescents may benefit from training them to improve self-compassion abilities and to be less self-critical.

Language: en

Keywords

depressive symptoms; nonsuicidal self-injury; self-compassion; self-criticism; stressful life events