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. 2023 Sep 1;5(3):335-342.
doi: 10.1089/aut.2022.0068. Epub 2023 Aug 30.

The Inter-Relationship of Emotion Regulation, Self-Compassion, and Mental Health in Autistic Adults

Ru Ying Cai  1   2 , Abigail Love  1 , Ainslie Robinson  1 , Vicki Gibbs  1   3
Affiliations

The Inter-Relationship of Emotion Regulation, Self-Compassion, and Mental Health in Autistic Adults

Ru Ying Cai et al. Autism Adulthood. .

Abstract

Background: Emotion regulation is one of the key factors that influence mental health outcomes in autistic and nonautistic populations. Recent research has also identified self-compassion as a negative correlate of depression and positive correlate of psychological well-being in autistic adults. Empirical evidence from the general population supports the notion that being kind and compassionate toward oneself during stressful and difficult moments can help with one's ability to regulate negative emotions, which then has flow-on effects on mental health outcomes. However, the inter-relationship between self-compassion, emotion regulation, and mental health has not been examined in autistic samples. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine if emotion regulation mediates the relationship between self-compassion and anxiety or depression in a sample of autistic adults.

Methods: Participants were 153 adults (meanage = 35.70, standard deviationage = 12.62) who had either self-reported a clinical diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder or self-identified as autistic. They completed an online survey capturing self-compassion, emotion regulation, anxiety, and depression. We hypothesized that emotion regulation would mediate the relationship between self-compassion and anxiety or depression, and self-compassion would not mediate the relationship between emotion regulation and anxiety or depression.

Results: As predicted, only emotion regulation mediated the relationship between self-compassion and mental health outcomes. Self-compassion did not mediate the relationship between emotion regulation and mental health outcomes.

Conclusion: This study provides preliminary evidence for the role that self-compassion plays in improving emotion regulation and mental health in autistic adults. If this mechanism of emotion regulation mediating the relationship between self-compassion and mental health is consistently found in future studies, then it would be helpful for future research to examine the clinical benefits of including a self-compassion component in emotion regulation interventions to improve mental health outcomes of autistic adults.

Keywords: anxiety; autism; depression; emotional well-being; self-compassion.

Plain language summary

Why is this an important issue?: Many autistic individuals are diagnosed with mental illnesses such as anxiety or depression. Having a mental illness leads to negative consequences such as feelings of loneliness and sleep problems. Research findings show that improving autistic people's ability to regulate emotions can reduce symptoms of mental illnesses. Being compassionate toward ourselves during stressful and difficult moments can help us better regulate our negative emotions such as anger, sadness, and fear. Better emotion regulation then improves mental health. Research in the general population supports this proposal. But no research has studied the relationship between self-compassion, emotion regulation, and mental health in autistic adults.

What was the purpose of this study?: This study aims to look at the relationship between self-compassion, emotion regulation, and mental health in a sample of autistic adults.

What did the researchers do?: We designed an online survey and asked autistic adults to complete this survey. Several autism and autistic organizations around the world helped us spread the word about this study (we are grateful for their support!). The survey contained questions capturing people's self-compassion levels, emotion regulation difficulties, and symptoms of anxiety and depression. One hundred and fifty-three autistic adults completed the survey. These participants either self-reported a diagnosis of autism or self-identified as autistic.

What were the results of the study?: We found that autistic adults with higher levels of self-compassion had better emotion regulation and fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression.

What do these findings add to what was already known?: Researchers and clinicians have designed various treatments to improve autistic people's emotion regulation. And we know that some of these treatments also improve mental health. We need to identify the components that should be included in the treatments to make them most effective. If future research continues to find this relationship between self-compassion, emotion regulation, and mental health, then adding a self-compassion component to emotion regulation treatments may be helpful.

What are potential weaknesses in the study?: This study has several weaknesses: Online survey design—we could not conduct diagnostic assessments to confirm the participant's autism diagnosis. But we have used a questionnaire called the Autism Spectrum Quotient; all participants who self-identified as autistic met the cutoff for autism.Data collection—we collected data from participants at one point, which meant we could not identify the direction of the relationships between variables.Gender of autistic people—a larger proportion of our participants were women, which does not match the typical autism gender ratio of 1:4 (female:male).

How will these findings help autistic adults now or in the future?: We hope this study will start the conversation on the relevance of increasing self-compassion for improving emotion regulation and mental health in autistic adults. Therefore, this study may inform the design of future interventions for improving autistic adults' emotion regulation and mental health.

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Conflict of interest statement

No competing financial interests exist.

Figures

FIG. 1.
FIG. 1.
Mediation models (a–d).
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