A cross-cultural study of self-compassion and the moderating role of alexithymia

Self-compassion is an emotion regulation strategy which may be influenced by culture. This study aimed to examine the levels of the two factors of the Self-Compassion Scale (self-compassion and self-coldness) and their associations with cultural values at the individual level in Western and East-Asian cultural contexts, and the possible moderating role of alexithymia. Data were collected from 397 adults from the general population living in Ireland and China. Chinese participants reported more self-compassion and less self-coldness than Irish participants. In the Irish sample, greater horizontal individualism was associated with higher levels of self-compassion; moreover, vertical collectivism was associated with higher levels of self-coldness, whereas the relationships were more complicated in the Chinese sample since both individualistic and collectivistic cultural values were found to be positively correlated with self-compassion and self-coldness. Furthermore, in both samples, marginal interaction effects were found between alexithymia and specific cultural values when predicting self-compassion and self-coldness. Overall, this study highlights the dynamic nature of culture and indicates the understanding of two-factor construct of the Self-Compassion Scale may be culture-specific. Moreover, this is the first study to explore how alexithymia interacts with cultural values at the individual level to influence self-compassion and self-coldness, contributing preliminary evidence to the field of cross-cultural alexithymia.