A Brief Self-Compassionate Letter-Writing Intervention for Individuals with High Shame.

Content Provider	Europe PMC
Author	Swee, Michaela B. Klein, Keith Murray, Susan Heimberg, Richard G.
Abstract	ObjectivesOver the last decade, the mental health of undergraduate students has been of increasing concern and the prevalence of psychological disorders among this population has reached an unprecedented high. Compassion-based interventions have been used to treat shame and self-criticism, both of which are common experiences among undergraduate students and transdiagnostic vulnerability factors for an array of psychological disorders. This randomized controlled study examined the utility of a brief online self-compassionate letter-writing intervention for undergraduate students with high shame.MethodParticipants were 68 undergraduates who scored in the upper quartile on shame. Individuals were randomly assigned to a 16-day self-compassionate letter-writing intervention (n = 29) or a waitlist control group (n = 39). Participants completed baseline, post-assessment, and one-month follow-up measures.ResultsParticipants who practiced self-compassionate letter writing evidenced medium-to-large reductions in global shame, external shame, self-criticism, and general anxiety at post-assessment, and gains were sustained at follow-up. Additionally, there were trend-level effects for increases in self-compassion and decreases in depression for those who participated in the intervention.ConclusionsThis study examined the efficacy of self-compassionate letter-writing as a stand-alone intervention for undergraduate students with high shame. This brief, easily accessible, and self-administered practice may be beneficial for a host of internalizing symptoms in this population and may support university counseling centers as they navigate high demand for mental health services.
Related Links	https://europepmc.org/backend/ptpmcrender.fcgi?accid=PMC9992917&blobtype=pdf
ISSN	18688527
Journal	Mindfulness [Mindfulness (N Y)]
Volume Number	14
DOI	10.1007/s12671-023-02097-5
PubMed Central reference number	PMC9992917
Issue Number	4
PubMed reference number	37090852
e-ISSN	18688535
Language	English
Publisher	Springer US
Publisher Date	2023-03-08
Publisher Place	New York
Access Restriction	Open
Rights License	This article is made available via the PMC Open Access Subset for unrestricted research re-use and secondary analysis in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for the duration of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2023, Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
Subject Keyword	Shame Self-criticism Self-compassion Self-compassionate letter writing Anxiety Depression
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Experimental and Cognitive Psychology Developmental and Educational Psychology Health (social science) Social Psychology Applied Psychology