Symposia
Eating Disorders
Brenna Williams, M.S.
Doctoral student
University of Louisville
Louisville, Kentucky
Cheri Levinson, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
University of Louisville
Louisville, Kentucky
Individuals with eating disorders (EDs) report lower self-compassion than healthy individuals, and self-compassion is inversely related to ED symptoms and body dissatisfaction (Ferreira et al., 2012, 2013). Treatments focused on promoting self-compassion may decrease ED symptoms and improve treatment (Kelly et al., 2014a, Kelly et al., 2014b). The Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) program has been shown to increase self-compassion and improve psychological well-being, depression, and anxiety among a community sample (Neff & Germer, 2013). Despite the evidence suggesting that self-compassion interventions may improve ED symptomatology, no studies to date have assessed the efficacy of MSC in individuals with EDs, outside of binge eating disorder. It is possible that MSC may help individuals with EDs develop self-compassion, decrease self-criticism, and reduce ED symptoms. The current study aims to investigate the feasibility of MSC among individuals with an ED as well as examine changes in self-compassion and ED symptoms. Participants with a current ED (current N=10, expected N at the time of presentation=35) attend a weekly MSC workshop and completed measures at pre- and post-workshop and one-month follow-up. Preliminary data indicates that 60% of participants (n=6) completed at least half of the sessions. Large effect sizes were found for overall self-compassion (η2=.66), self-kindness (η2=.93), self-judgment (η2=.71), common humanity (η2=.40), isolation (η2=.16), mindfulness (η2=.19), and overidentification (η2=.85). Regarding ED symptoms, a medium effect size was found for eating concerns (η2=.11), and small effect sizes were found for overall ED symptoms (η2=.02), restraint (η2=.01), weight concerns (η2=.01), and no effect was found for shape concerns. These findings suggest that MSC improves aspects of self-compassion with large effect sizes. MSC also improved most ED symptoms (except shape concerns) with medium to small effect sizes. Thus, MSC may be an efficacious program to target self-compassion and ED symptoms among individuals with EDs. Future research is needed with larger sample sizes to continue to understand the impact of targeting self-compassion on ED pathology.