Self-Compassion and Self-Forgiveness in Alcohol Risk, Treatment and Recovery: A Systematic Review.

INTRODUCTION: Self-compassion and self-forgiveness are two self-focused, positive coping approaches that may reduce risk of problem drinking and/or aid in treatment/recovery from alcohol use disorder. The present systematic review aimed to evaluate support for the unique and complementary roles of self-compassion and self-forgiveness in alcohol outcomes. METHODS: A systematic literature search yielded 18 studies examining self-compassion, 18 studies examining self-forgiveness and 1 study examining both constructs in alcohol outcomes. RESULTS: Findings suggest greater self-compassion and self-forgiveness relate to lower likelihood of problem drinking. Self-forgiveness was considerably more researched in treatment/recovery outcomes than self-compassion; self-forgiveness-based interventions appear able to improve drinking-adjacent outcomes, and self-forgiveness may increase across various alcohol treatments. Finally, research suggests that associations of self-compassion and/or self-forgiveness with alcohol outcomes could be driven by numerous factors, including coping-motivated drinking, depression, psychache, social support perceptions, mental health status and/or psychiatric distress. CONCLUSIONS: Self-compassion and self-forgiveness both appear protective against harmful alcohol outcomes. Nevertheless, many questions remain about the role of self-forgiveness and, particularly, self-compassion in alcohol treatment and recovery outcomes. Future research should examine whether targeted interventions and/or adjunctive therapeutic supports designed to increase self-compassion or self-forgiveness can reduce alcohol use disorder symptoms to facilitate alcohol treatment and recovery success.

College Women's Perceptions of a Friend-Based Intervention to Prevent Alcohol-Involved Sexual Assault.

Sexual assault (SA), particularly alcohol-involved SA, remains prevalent among college women. Because SA often begins in social contexts, bystander intervention has become a popular approach to prevention. Bystander interventions train individuals to intervene on behalf of others, including strangers, despite research indicating that intervention is more likely to occur when the bystander has a relationship with the target. Shifting the focus to friends as potential bystanders capitalizes on the qualities of relationship and responsibility that facilitate intervention. College women (N = 35) participated in focus groups (N = 8) during which they viewed a video prototype of a friend-based motivational interviewing (FMI) intervention session conducted with a friend dyad and provided feedback about the relevance and feasibility of using such an approach to reduce SA among friends who drink together in social settings. Content analysis of focus group transcripts yielded three themes: a) Friends as Natural Bystanders; b) The Role of Alcohol in Intervention, and c) Receptivity to FMI intervention. Women indicated that they feel responsible for keeping their friends safe, and that this sense of responsibility facilitates helping behaviors. Women also described ways through which alcohol intoxication can affect helping behavior. Women expressed enthusiasm for the FMI intervention approach and identified its emphasis on friendship and flexible approaches to personal safety as strengths. Findings highlight the promise of FMI intervention approaches that capitalize on the strengths of women's friendship to create safety goals that align with participants' values and overcome barriers to intervention, including alcohol intoxication.

Decentering from Emotions in Daily Life: Dynamic Associations with Affect, Symptoms, and Wellbeing.

Decentering is thought to be protective against a range of psychological symptoms, but little is known about the outcomes of decentering as a momentary state in daily life. We used ecological momentary assessment (42 reports across one week) to examine the temporal ordering of the associations of decentering with affect, dysphoria, participant-specific idiographic symptoms, and wellbeing. We also hypothesized that greater decentering predicts less inertia (persistence) of each variable, and weakens the association of affect with dysphoria, idiographic symptoms, and wellbeing. Results in 345 community participants indicated that decentering and these variables were mutually reinforcing over time, and that greater decentering was associated with less inertia of negative affect and dysphoria. Decentering generally predicted reduced impact of positive and negative affect on dysphoria symptoms, but results were mixed when predicting idiographic symptoms or wellbeing. Clinical implications and refinements for theory on decentering are discussed.

Clarifying the Relationship Between Self-Compassion and Mindfulness: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study.

Objectives: Self-compassion entails relating to one's negative experiences with awareness, acceptance, and kindness, and it is associated with greater well-being. The Self-Compassion Scale (SCS) includes mindfulness, which is theorized as a necessary precursor to a self-compassionate response. The present study examined associations of the SCS and its subscales with mindfulness and decentering at baseline and in daily life to clarify the measure's construct validity. We also tested whether self-compassion moderates the association between mindfulness and eudaimonic well-being in daily life during occasions of increased negative affect. Method: The sample of 172 community adults completed the SCS at baseline and a 7-day ecological momentary assessment. The SCS's construct validity was tested with multilevel correlations and regressions. We tested the interaction of momentary mindfulness, momentary negative affect, and dispositional self-compassion in predicting momentary well-being. Results: Results generally supported the construct validity of the SCS, but SCS mindfulness subscales were most closely associated with decentering scales in daily life. Higher dispositional self-compassion, higher momentary mindful awareness, and lower momentary negative affect predicted higher momentary eudaimonic well-being. However, self-compassion did not interact with momentary mindful awareness and negative affect. Conclusions: The SCS generally related to measures of mindfulness and decentering as expected, but further work should be done to clarify subscale construct validity. Self-compassion was predictive of higher momentary eudaimonic well-being in people's daily lives, supportive of ecological validity, but trait levels of self-compassion did not affect the relationship between momentary mindfulness and eudaimonic well-being.