Stability of Self-compassion and its Relationship to Depressive Symptoms in Primary Caregivers of Twin Children: A Longitudinal Study

Increasing evidence has pointed to self-compassion as a protective factor against the development of depressive symptoms during times of stress. Because parents of children in infancy and middle childhood experience both significant stress and higher levels of depression relative to non-parents, self-compassion may be an important resilience attribute, preventing or alleviating parents’ depressive symptoms. The present study evaluated the concurrent and cross-lagged associations between self-compassion and depressive symptoms over an 8-year timespan in caregivers of twin children.

Cross-lagged panel models indicated that self-compassion and depressive symptoms were relatively stable over a 7- to 8-year period. Greater self-compassion at T2 was associated with fewer depressive symptoms at T3.

Self-compassion may be a resilience factor for preventing depressive symptoms over a 1-year time span in primary caregivers of infants and children in middle childhood. Thus, broadening efforts to ameliorate caregiver depressive symptoms during this stressful phase of family life to include bolstering self-compassion may be warranted.