Shame and guilt as mediators between dispositional optimism and symptom severity among mental health outpatients.

Dispositional optimism is robustly associated with psychological wellbeing, and individuals with lower optimism tend to experience more depressive and anxiety symptoms. While mechanisms in this relationship such as coping and social integration have been explored, limited research has examined whether the self-conscious emotions of shame and guilt account for the association between dispositional optimism and psychological distress. The present study examined shame and guilt as mediators in the relation between dispositional optimism and depressive and anxiety symptom severity among 137 patients (M age = 33.5, SD = 12.08 years) seeking community-based mental health care. Mediation analyses using bootstrap 99% confidence intervals indicated significant mediation by guilt--but not shame--in the model predicting depressive symptoms, and significant mediation by shame--but not guilt--in the model predicting anxiety symptoms. These findings suggest differential effects of dispositional optimism on depressive and anxiety symptoms according to the predominance of shame- or guilt-related affects. Interventions seeking to reduce distress through promoting optimism may be enhanced by considering patients' experiences of shame and guilt.

Shame, guilt, and suicidal thoughts: The interaction matters.

OBJECTIVES: This study examined associations between generalized shame and guilt, and suicidal ideation. METHODS: Individuals attending outpatient mental health services (N = 100) completed study measures at a single time point. Correlation and regression analyses examined associations between recent suicidal ideation and generalized shame and guilt, both concurrently and interacting, controlling for depressive symptoms and history of previous suicide attempt. RESULTS: When examined concurrently, guilt - but not shame - remained significantly associated with suicidal ideation, after accounting for effects of depressive symptoms and past suicide attempt. A significant shame × guilt interaction revealed the association between guilt and suicidal ideation intensified with higher shame. CONCLUSIONS: Findings emphasize consideration of generalized shame and guilt - and their interaction - when working with patients exhibiting suicidal thoughts. PRACTITIONER POINTS: Shame and guilt are self-conscious emotions that, when generalized and excessive, may confer risk for suicidal ideation Generalized guilt may be uniquely linked with suicidal ideation, yet this association may also amplified by shame Both shame and guilt - and their interaction - are important to consider when working with patients exhibiting suicidal thoughts.

Measuring Alcohol Use-Related Shame and Guilt: Development and Validation of the Perceptions of Drinking Scale.

Background: The dispositional tendency to experience guilt is inversely related to disordered alcohol use, while dispositional shame-proneness appears to share a positive relationship with alcohol problems. Objective: In order to further research in this domain, a new measure of alcohol use-related shame and guilt is described. Methods: Using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), the psychometric properties of the Perceptions of Drinking Scale (PODS) were validated across two independent samples (Sample 1 N = 293, Sample 2 N = 429). Results: A four factor model of the PODS was identified in exploratory factor analysis. The hypothesized four-factor PODS model was validated in an independent sample using CFA (RMSEA = .046; CFI = .99; TLI = .99). Alcohol use-related shame and guilt were reliably differentiated, and test re-test stability, divergent and convergent validity was established. Alcohol use-related shame was not clearly related to taking action to address problematic alcohol use, but was positively related with measures of negative affect and using avoidance-based coping strategies. Conversely, alcohol use-related guilt was generally unrelated to measures of negative affect and was clearly associated with the taking of action to address problematic alcohol use. Conclusions: The Perceptions of Drinking Scale has good psychometric properties and also appears to reliably distinguish between experiences of alcohol use-related shame and guilt. Both alcohol use-related shame and guilt appear to be positively associated with the contemplation of changing one's alcohol use-related behaviors. Only alcohol use-related guilt was clearly linked to the taking of action to address problematic drinking behavior.

Shame and guilt mediate the effects of alexithymia on distress and suicide-related behaviours among men.

Alexithymia has been hypothesised to elevate risk of negative mental health outcomes for men. The growing literature related to the role of men's experience of self-conscious emotions (i.e., shame and guilt) suggests that these aversive affective experiences may be important in the relationship between alexithymia and negative mental health outcomes. The present study used parallel mediation models to determine the mediating roles of shame and guilt in the relationships between alexithymia and psychological distress and suicide-related behaviours. Online self-report data was collected from a sample of Canadian men (N = 1,000; M age = 49.63, SD = 14.59). Participants completed measures of alexithymia, guilt, shame and depression. Adjusting for current depression symptoms, bias corrected bootstrapping (95% CIs) indicated that both shame and guilt were mediators between identification of feelings and distress (R2 = .67), and description of feelings and distress (R2 = .64). In contrast, guilt, but not shame, mediated the relationship between both identification of feelings and suicide-related behaviours (R2 = .38), and description of feelings and suicide-related behaviours (R2 = .39). Results indicate that men's difficulties identifying and describing their feelings and corresponding distress are particularly explained by shame - an aversive maladaptive emotion that promotes concealment of a perceived defective self. Conversely, guilt was more salient for men's suicide-related behaviours.

Shame, guilt, and facial emotion processing: initial evidence for a positive relationship between guilt-proneness and facial emotion recognition ability.

Shame and guilt are closely related self-conscious emotions of negative affect that give rise to divergent self-regulatory and motivational behaviours. While guilt-proneness has demonstrated positive relationships with self-report measures of empathy and adaptive interpersonal functioning, shame-proneness tends to be unrelated or inversely related to empathy and is associated with interpersonal difficulties. At present, no research has examined relationships between shame and guilt-proneness with facial emotion recognition ability. Participants (N = 363) completed measures of shame and guilt-proneness along with a facial emotion recognition task which assessed the ability to identify displays of anger, sadness, happiness, fear, disgust, and shame. Guilt-proneness was consistently positively associated with facial emotion recognition ability. In contrast, shame-proneness was unrelated to capacity for facial emotion recognition. Findings provide support for theory arguing that guilt and empathy operate synergistically and may also help explain the inverse relationship between guilt-proneness and propensity for aggressive behaviour.

Mental health correlates of athletic shame and guilt among elite-level youth athletes in Turkey.

OBJECTIVES: This study evaluated the mental health correlates of athletic shame and guilt among elite-level youth athletes and provided psychometric data on the Turkish version of the Athletic Perceptions of Performance Scale. DESIGN: Cross-sectional. METHODS: An online survey was sent to 645 Turkish elite-level youth athletes incorporating standardized scales assessing athletic shame, guilt, and symptoms of high prevalence mental disorders. A subset of participants (n = 45) provided test-retest data at 30 days. RESULTS: A total of 301 elite youth athletes participated (M = 16.42 ±â€¯0.49 years; 48.7 % response rate) equally representing team and individual sports. Confirmatory factor analysis validated the Turkish version of the Athletic Perceptions of Performance Scale and test-retest data supported temporal stability. Female athletes (compared to male athletes) and athletes participating in an individual sport (compared to participating in a team sport) reported higher athletic shame-proneness scores (p < 0.01 and p = 0.04; respectively). The Turkish version of the Athletic Perceptions of Performance Scale shame-proneness and no-concern scores were associated with athlete-specific stress, anxiety, and depression scores. The Turkish version of the Athletic Perceptions of Performance Scale guilt-proneness was associated with athlete-specific stress and anxiety scores. CONCLUSIONS: Findings provide cross-cultural validation of the Athletic Perceptions of Performance Scale assessing athletic shame and guilt, demonstrating that female athletes and athletes participating in an individual sport were more likely to experience athletic shame-proneness. Results suggest that athletes experiencing shame-proneness and performance concerns may benefit from supportive coaching and/or mental health supports.

Athlete Experiences of Shame and Guilt: Initial Psychometric Properties of the Athletic Perceptions of Performance Scale Within Junior Elite Cricketers.

Guilt and shame are self-conscious emotions with implications for mental health, social and occupational functioning, and the effectiveness of sports practice. To date, the assessment and role of athlete-specific guilt and shame has been under-researched. Reporting data from 174 junior elite cricketers (M = 17.34 years; females n = 85), the present study utilized exploratory factor analysis in validating the Athletic Perceptions of Performance Scale (APPS), assessing three distinct and statistically reliable factors: athletic shame-proneness, guilt-proneness, and no-concern. Conditional process analysis indicated that APPS shame-proneness mediated the relationship between general and athlete-specific distress (p < 0.01), with this pathway non-contingent on sex or past 12-month help-seeking for mental health concerns (p's > 0.05). While APPS domains of guilt-proneness and no-concern were not significant mediators, they exhibited correlations in the expected direction with indices of psychological distress and well-being. The APPS may assist coaches and support staff identify players who may benefit from targeted interventions to reduce the likelihood of experiencing shame-prone states.

Performance on neuropsychological assessment and progression to dementia: A meta-analysis.

This meta-analysis examined how performance on various cognitive domains of neuropsychological functioning can contribute to predicting progression to dementia from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or subjective memory complaints. Studies performed between the years of 1997 and 2018 were identified through a search of the electronic databases Medline and PsycINFO. Data from the articles identified were pooled to determine standardized mean differences, calculated as Hedges g, using a random-effects model. Twenty-four studies were included in the analysis. The majority of studies examined the progression of amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) to Alzheimer's disease (AD). Nonprogressors performed significantly better than did progressors in the domains of divided attention, executive function, expressive language, immediate recall, processing speed, delayed recall, visuospatial/constructional ability, working memory, and sustained attention. These findings indicate that individuals with MCI or subjective memory complaints who do not progress to dementia, perform better at baseline as compared with individuals that progress to dementia on a range of neuropsychological measures, and lends further support to the contention that neuropsychological assessment can make important contributions to predicting progression to dementia while individuals are still in the MCI or subjective memory complaint stage. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Guilt-proneness is associated with the use of protective behavioral strategies during episodes of alcohol use.

INTRODUCTION: Shame and guilt are closely related emotions with diverging implications for the development, and potential treatment, of substance use disorders. Accumulating research indicates that a guilt-prone affect style buffers individuals against the development of problematic alcohol use, while shame-proneness appears to offer no protective function. However, little is known about the manner in which guilt-prone individuals avoid the experience of alcohol use-related harms. The present study aimed to extend the shame, guilt, and substance use literature by examining whether these two self-conscious affect styles are differentially related to the use of protective behavioral strategies which reduce the risk of harms during drinking episodes. METHODS: Participants (N=281; female n=207) completed pen-and-paper measures of shame and guilt-proneness, level of alcohol use, and the habitual use of protective behavioral strategies during drinking episodes. Part-correlation analysis isolated shame-free guilt and guilt-free shame residuals in exploring relationships between self-conscious affect style and the use of protective behavioral strategies during drinking episodes. RESULTS: Guilt-proneness was consistently associated with the routine use of protective behavioral strategies during episodes of alcohol intake. In contrast, shame-proneness was unrelated to the use of such protective and harm avoidance strategies when drinking. CONCLUSION: Findings provide additional support for the argument that guilt and shame need to be considered separately in both research and substance use treatment settings.

Longitudinal sex differences of externalising and internalising depression symptom trajectories: Implications for assessment of depression in men from an online study.

BACKGROUND: Clinical reports indicate that men tend to engage in a range of externalising behaviours in response to negative emotional states. Such externalising behaviours have been theorised to reflect a male sub-type of depression that is inconsistent with current diagnostic criteria, resulting in impeded detection and treatment rates of depressed men. AIMS: In addressing previous study design limitations, this article presents self-report longitudinal data for the multidimensional Male Depression Risk Scale (MDRS-22) against ratings of diagnostic criteria for major depressive disorder as assessed by the Patient Health Questionnaire-Depression Module (PHQ-9). Longitudinal psychometric properties of the MDRS-22 are reported and symptom trajectories described. METHOD: A sample of 233 adults (males = 125; 54%) completed measures of externalising and prototypic depression symptoms at Time 1, and again at Time 2 (15 weeks later). Psychometric properties were examined and within-subjects analyses undertaken. RESULTS: The MDRS-22 demonstrated stable internal consistency and test-retest correlations equivalent to those observed for the PHQ-9. Both prototypic and externalising depression symptoms increased with experiences of recent negative life events. Marked gender differences were observed. Males experiencing ≥ 2 stressful negative life events reported significantly higher MDRS-22 scores at both Time 1 and Time 2 relative to comparable females. CONCLUSION: Findings contribute to the validity of the MDRS-22 as a measure of externalising depression symptoms. Results suggest that while both males and females experience externalising depression symptoms, these symptoms may be particularly elevated for men following experiences of negative life events. Findings suggest that externalising symptoms may be a special feature of depression for men. Given the problematic nature of such externalising symptoms (e.g. excessive substance use, aggression, risk-taking), their clinical assessment appears warranted.