Self-Compassion as a Protective Factor: Moderating the Effects of Emotion Dysregulation and Dissociation on PTSD Symptomatology

Abstract

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is often coupled with severe emotion dysregulation and dissociative symptoms that are linked to a higher level of symptoms and adverse recovery outcomes. Whereas these risk factors are well-established, there is less information on protective factors that can modify their effect on the PTSD symptomatology. The current paper tested the hypothesis of self-compassion as a protective factor in the connections between emotion control, dissociation, and PTSD symptoms. Based on self-compassion and emotion regulation theories, the hypothesis was that increased self-compassion would also buffer the negative impact of emotion dysregulation and dissociative symptoms on the severity of PTSD. A group of 250 adults with a history of trauma was sampled and administered validated self-report measures: The Self-Compassion Scale Short Form (SCS-SF), the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale Short Form (DERS-SF), and the Dissociative Symptoms Scale-Brief (DSS-B), and a measure of the severity of PTSD. The multiple regression and moderation analyses showed that the emotion dysregulation and dissociation symptoms were positively correlated to the severity of PTSD, but self-compassion was negatively correlated to the symptoms of PTSD. Significantly, self-compassion had a major moderating effect on the association between both emotion regulation and PTSD symptoms, as well as dissociation and PTSD symptoms, where the relationship was significantly less strong at higher levels of self-compassion. Simple slopes analyses showed that the participants who had a high self-compassion level were significantly less affected by PTSD despite managing to achieve a high level of emotion dysregulation or dissociative symptoms. These results indicate that self-compassion is a resilience aspect that can be modified and is protective of the harmful impacts of vulnerabilities associated with core trauma. The findings highlight the clinical importance of integrating interventions based on self-compassion in trauma-sensitive assessment, prevention, and treatment interventions to improve adaptive coping and post-traumatic recovery.