Self‐compassionate reflective writing for affect regulation in Australian perinatal women

Abstract

AbstractThe current study investigated the effect of a brief online self‐compassionate reflective writing task on affect regulation in a sample of Australian perinatal women. Participants were 55 women (Mage = 35.47, SD = 3.79) who were pregnant (16.4%) and/or had an infant <24 months old (76.4%). State self‐compassion, positive and negative affect, and future help‐seeking behavior intentions were compared at pre‐ and post‐intervention while controlling for trait self‐compassion. Inductive thematic analysis was used to extract themes regarding why participants deemed the intervention helpful or unhelpful. As hypothesized, global state self‐compassion and intention to engage in self‐care behavior were higher, and negative affect was lower, immediately post‐intervention relative to pre‐intervention scores. Follow‐up subscale analyses revealed that the mechanisms of the shift in state self‐compassion scores were via reduced self‐judgment and overidentification and increased common humanity. There was no significant change in positive affect or intention to engage in help‐seeking behavior. Most participants (75%) indicated that the task was helpful with themes identified as written format, changed perspective, dedicating time to reflect, improved mood, and practicing self‐kindness. Self‐compassionate reflective writing may be a brief and accessible psychosocial approach with the potential to foster healthy emotion regulation and coping among perinatal women.