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. 2025 Jan 9;13(2):120.
doi: 10.3390/healthcare13020120.

Australian Women in the Perinatal Period During COVID-19: The Influence of Self-Compassion and Emotional Regulation on Anxiety, Depression, and Social Anxiety

Kayla Cutajar  1 , Glen William Bates  1
Affiliations

Australian Women in the Perinatal Period During COVID-19: The Influence of Self-Compassion and Emotional Regulation on Anxiety, Depression, and Social Anxiety

Kayla Cutajar et al. Healthcare (Basel). .

Abstract

Objectives: This study examined how self-compassion and emotional regulation strategies have influenced perinatal anxiety, depression, and social anxiety during COVID-19. Methods: A probabilistic sample, determined by convenience criteria of 265 Australian perinatal women completed an online survey containing measures of depression, anxiety, social anxiety, COVID-19 experiences, self-compassion, and emotional regulation strategies. Results: As hypothesised, correlation analyses showed that self-compassion and adaptive emotional regulation strategies were negatively related to anxiety, depression and social anxiety, and maladaptive strategies were positively related. Contrary to predictions, COVID-19-related experiences showed little relationship with mental health outcomes. Parallel mediation analyses showed that self-compassion negatively predicted depression and anxiety and was partially mediated by specific emotional regulation strategies. For social anxiety, self-compassion was fully mediated by emotional regulation strategies. Different emotional regulation strategies were significant mediators of the relationship between self-compassion and each mental health outcome. Conclusions: The findings suggest that reinforcing self-compassion and addressing certain emotional regulation deficits is important in alleviating mental health symptoms among perinatal women.

Keywords: anxiety; depression; emotional regulation; perinatal women; self-compassion; social anxiety.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as potential conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Parallel Mediation model for depression. Note: * = p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Parallel mediation model for anxiety. Note: * = p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Parallel mediation model for social anxiety. Note: * = p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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