The mediator effect of self-compassion in relation of childhood trauma experiences and emotion regulation difficulty

In this study, it was aimed to examine the mediating effect of self-compassion between the emotion regulation difficulty and childhood trauma experiences. For this aim, 250 volunteer participants (118 women) aged between 18-65 living in Samsun participated. Demographic Form, Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form (CTQ-SF) and Self-Compassion Scale were used. The handled data at first are regulated by helping SPSS 23.0 and then to Access to Lisrel 8.71 program, the structural pattern is tested to observe the mediator effect of self-compassion in relation between childhood trauma experiences and emotion regulation difficulty. The result shows that self-compassion acts as the partial mediator between childhood trauma experiences and emotion regulation difficulty. All the results have discussed all aspects of the related literature and suggestions were given to mental health professionals and researchers. Key Words: Self-Compassion, Childhood Trauma Experiences, Difficulties in Emotion Regulation