Carvalho, S., Gillanders, D., Palmeira, L., Pinto-Gouveia, J., & Castilho, P. (2018). Mindfulness, self-compassion, and depressive symptoms in chronic pain: The role of pain acceptance. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 74(12), 2094-2106. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.22689
Objective(s): To test a theory driven model in which pain acceptance (both pain willingness and activity engagement) mediates the relationships of mindfulness and self-compassion with depressive symptoms, while controlling for pain intensity.
Method: A path analysis was conducted using AMOS software to test a mediational model in a sample of women with chronic musculoskeletal pain (N = 231).
Results: Participants with higher levels of mindful awareness and self-compassion presented lower levels of pain intensity and depressive symptoms, and higher levels of activity engagement. Pain willingness did not significantly correlate with any variable in study. The mediation analysis showed that activity engagement mediated the relationship between self-compassion and depressive symptoms, independently from pain intensity.
Conclusions: These findings seem to corroborate the hypothesis that self-compassion is rooted in a motivational system, as it seems to correlate with less depressive symptoms through increasing the engagement with valued actions despite experiencing pain.