Self-compassion, body dissatisfaction, and disordered eating

The current study assesses a self-compassion writing task as an intervention for body dissatisfaction in women with varying levels of disordered eating while considering the effects of both positive and negative affect as well as shame. Seventy-one women between the ages of 18 and 30 completed several questionnaires along with a 15-minute self-compassionate letter writing task. Intervention interacted with disordered eating to predict changes in body dissatisfaction, such that those with less disordered eating were less dissatisfied with their bodies following the self-compassion writing task, B = -0.015, se(B) = 0.006, t(64) = -2.694, p = 0.009. There was an indirect effect of intervention on changes in body dissatisfaction through changes in shame, B = -0.142, se(B) = .063, 95% CI = -0.278, -0.032. There was a significant reduction in negative affect, F(1, 68) = 7.829, p = .007, partial η2 = .103, and shame, F(1, 68) = 8.106, p = .006, partial η2 = .107, in the self-compassion group. This study provides support for the use of self-compassionate letter writing as an intervention for body dissatisfaction in women with low levels of disordered eating and demonstrates that such interventions can be useful in reducing shame and negative affect more generally.