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Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is one of the most common mood disorders and affects over 300 million individuals across the world in a given year. MDD is marked by sadness, loss of pleasure or interest, feelings of guilt or low self-worth, disturbed sleep or appetite, fatigue or loss of energy, and poor concentration that leads to functional impairment, which can potentially have a debilitating impact on individual’s educational, occupational, social and psychological areas of life. Not only is depression highly prevalent in the U.S., but it is also a global concern, including countries such as China. Estimates of lifetime prevalence rates range from 32.6 to 35.1 million in the US and 54 to 100 million in China, respectively. A growing literature shows that self-compassion is a strong protective factor for depression. Self-compassion is a process of mindfully accepting oneself by reducing self-criticism and examining one’s experiences from a broader perspective. The values behind self-compassion are rooted in Asian cultural teachings. A small but growing body of work suggests that self-compassion outcomes may differ across non-Western and Western cultures. However, the effect of cultural background on the relationship between self-compassion and depression remains unknown; therefore, more research is needed to be done in cross-cultural domains. The current proposed project further seeks to understand the role of self-compassion in depression among both American and Chinese populations. This study also aims to understand whether cultural components moderate the relationship between self-compassion and depression. |
