Compassionate and Self-Critical Self-Relating Following Interpersonal Trauma: Differential Associations With Cognitive Emotion Regulation and Interpersonal Competence

Interpersonal trauma poses enduring challenges for relational functioning in early adulthood, yet substantial heterogeneity exists in how individuals adapt interpersonally following such experiences. Drawing on self-compassion theory and emotion-regulation flexibility perspectives, this study examined how self-compassion—conceptualized as a multidimensional construct comprising positive (self-kindness, common humanity, mindfulness) and negative (self-judgment, isolation, over-identification) components—relates to interpersonal competence, and whether adaptive and maladaptive cognitive emotion-regulation strategies differentially accounted for these associations. Participants were 1,004 South Korean young adults (49.8% male; M age = 29.47) who had experienced a subjectively distressing interpersonal event or relational loss. They completed measures of self-compassion, cognitive emotion regulation, and interpersonal competence. Path-analytic models examined direct and indirect associations among these variables. Additional moderation analyses examined whether the associations between self-compassion and cognitive emotion regulation differed by sex. Overall self-compassion was positively associated with interpersonal competence, with this association driven primarily by positive components of self-compassion. Positive components of self-compassion exhibited robust indirect associations with interpersonal competence via greater use of adaptive cognitive emotion-regulation strategies (e.g., acceptance, positive reappraisal). In contrast, negative components of self-compassion were associated with reduced use of adaptive strategies and greater use of maladaptive strategies (e.g., rumination, self-blame). Negative components also showed small positive indirect associations with interpersonal competence through maladaptive strategies, suggesting that these strategies were not uniformly associated with lower interpersonal competence. Tests of moderation by sex showed that the associations between self-compassion and cognitive emotion regulation were largely comparable across male and female participants. Together, these findings suggest that individual differences in self-relating and cognitive emotion regulation may help explain heterogeneity in interpersonal competence and are broadly consistent with emotion-regulation flexibility perspectives on adaptation following interpersonal trauma.