Self-compassion, automatic thoughts, and mental pain in depression: Mediating effects and clinical implications

Table 1 The characteristics of depressed patients in the study (n = 389)

Items	Category	Case count (n)	Percentage (%)
Age (years)	18-30	210	54.2
	31-40	81	20.8
	41-50	53	13.6
	51-65	45	11.6
Gender	Male	135	34.7
	Female	254	65.3
Education	Junior high or below	58	14.9
	High school or vocational	48	12.3
	College or above	275	70.8
Marital status	Single	201	51.7
	Married	188	48.3
Occupation	Farmer	6	1.5
	Enterprise employee	73	18.8
	Public servant	43	11.0
	Unit employee	86	22.1
	Self-employed	41	10.5
	Student	141	36.8
Family monthly income (CNY)	≤ 3000	16	4.1
	3000-4999	44	11.3
	5000-7999	221	56.8
	More than 8000	10	2.6
Depression severity	Mild	67	17.2
	Moderate	257	66.1
	Severe	65	16.7
History of suicide or self-harm	None	208	53.5
	Yes	181	46.5
Recurrence times	First episode	179	46.1
	1 time	86	22.1
	2 times	65	16.7
	3 times	22	5.7
	4 times or more	37	9.5

CNY: China yuan.

Table 2 Scale Scores of depressed patients in the study (n = 389)

Scale component	mean ± SD
SCS-C
Total SCS-C	68.95 ± 14.89
Self-kindness	27.43 ± 7.87
Common humanity	21.58 ± 5.71
Mindfulness	20.37 ± 5.82
ATQ
Total ATQ	87.02 ± 28.91
OMMP
Total OMMP	129.01 ± 36.74
Irreversibility	30.45 ± 9.08
Loss of control	30.73 ± 9.41
Narcissistic wound	13.98 ± 5.67
Emotional collapse	14.76 ± 4.39
Emotional numbing	10.65 ± 3.51
Self-alienation	9.67 ± 3.74
Confusion	10.23 ± 2.98
Sense of emptiness	10.04 ± 3.95

SCS-C: Self-Compassion Scale-Chinese Version; ATQ: Automatic Thought Questionnaire; OMMP: Orbach & Mikulincer Mental Pain Scale-Chinese Version.

Table 3 Pearson correlation analysis results

Correlation	Mental pain	Automatic thoughts	Self-compassion
Mental pain	/	r = 0.802, P < 0.001	r = -0.645, P < 0.001
Automatic thoughts	/	/	r = -0.612, P < 0.001
Self-compassion	/	/	/

Table 4 The multiple linear regression on the influencing factors of mental pain in depressed patients

Independent variable	Unstandardized coefficients	Standard error	Standardized coefficients (beta)	t	P value
Constant	85.847	10.523
Automatic thoughts	0.796	0.031	0.623	10.396	< 0.001
Self-compassion	-0.369	0.063	-0.301	-2.392	< 0.001

Table 5 Mediation analysis of automatic thoughts in the relationship between self-compassion and mental pain in depressed patients

Effect	Path	Unstandardized coefficient	SE	t	P value	95%CI
Direct effect	Self-compassion to mental pain	-0.218	0.032	-4.531	< 0.001	-0.282 to -0.154
Indirect effect	Self-compassion to automatic thoughts	-0.412	0.051	-8.073	< 0.001	-0.515 to -0.309
	Automatic thoughts to mental pain	0.629	0.052	12.089	< 0.001	0.527-0.732
Total effect	Self-compassion to mental pain	-0.473	0.050	-9.461	< 0.001	-0.572 to -0.375