Examining the relationships among mindfulness, self-compassion and anxiety

This study aimed to compare the levels of self-compassion and mindfulness of individuals who have been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder and do not have any psychiatric illnesses, and to examine the relationships between mindfulness, self-compassion, and anxiety. The target population of the study was 72 people, including 36 people who applied to Uludag University Faculty of Medicine Mental Health and Diseases Outpatient Clinic, diagnosed with an anxiety disorder (anxiety group) according to DSM-V criteria, and 36 people without any psychiatric illness (control group). In order to gather information about the sociodemographic characteristics of the participants, Demographic Data Form; to determine their level of self-compassion, Self-Compassion Scale; to identify their level of mindfulness, Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, and to determine their level of anxiety, the Beck Anxiety Inventory were used. According to the results of the study, the anxiety group and the control group differed significantly in terms of the overall score of mindfulness, the total score of self-compassion, and the scores of self-kindness, common humanity, mindfulness, self-judgment, isolation, and over-identification, which are the sub-dimensions of self-compassion. While, in the control group, the total score of mindfulness, the total score of self-compassion, and the scores of self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness were higher; in the anxiety group, on the other hand, the scores of self-judgment, isolation, and over-identification were higher. As a result of correlation analyses conducted to determine the relationships between the scale scores of the anxiety group, a positive correlation was found between the overall score of mindfulness and the total score of self-compassion, and the scores of self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness, on the other hand, a negative correlation was found between the overall score of mindfulness and the scores of self-judgment, isolation, and over-identification. It was also found that there was a significant relationship in the negative direction between the total score of anxiety and the total scores of mindfulness and self-compassion, and in the positive direction between the overall score of anxiety and the isolation score and the score of over-identification.