Self‐reassurance, not self‐esteem, serves as a buffer between self‐criticism and depressive symptoms

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: Several studies suggest that self-criticism and self-reassurance operate through different mechanisms and might interact with each other. This study examined the hypothesis that self-reassurance serves as a buffer between self-criticism and depressive symptoms in a way that self-esteem, which is rooted in a different motivational system, may not. DESIGN: We hypothesized that self-criticism would be correlated with high levels of depressive symptoms, but that this association would be weaker at higher levels of self-reassurance abilities. We also hypothesized that self-esteem, a self-relating process based on feeling able and competent to achieve life goals, would not buffer the relationship between self-criticism and depression. METHODS: = 33.40, SD = 11.13). RESULTS: At higher levels of self-reassurance, the relationship between self-criticism and depressive symptoms became non-significant, supporting the buffering hypothesis of self-reassurance. Despite the high correlation between self-esteem and self-reassurance, self-esteem did not moderate the relationship between self-criticism and depressive symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Results support the growing evidence that not all positive self-relating processes exert the same protective function against psychopathological consequences of self-criticism. Implications for psychotherapy and the validity of using compassion-focused interventions with clients with self-critical issues are discussed. PRACTITIONER POINTS: Self-reassurance and self-criticism are distinct processes and they should not be considered positive and negative variations of a single dimension Different types of positive self-relating do not show the same correlation with depressive symptoms. The ability to be self-reassuring protects against the psychopathological correlates of self-criticism while having high self-esteem does not. Compassion-focused interventions are promising avenues to help clients counteract the negative impact of self-criticism on mood.

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