Term of Award

Fall 2025

Degree Name

Doctor of Psychology in Clinical Psychology (Psy.D.)

Document Type and Release Option

Dissertation (open access)

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Department

Department of Psychology

Committee Chair

Ryan Couillou

Committee Member 1

Jeff Klibert

Committee Member 2

Thresa Yancey

Abstract

The U.S. Military has faced a continuous rise in mental health concerns reported by service members and veterans (Currier et al., 2017; Rosenheck & Fontana, 2007). Studies of military personnel have found that up to 15% of service members meet the criteria for experiencing depression (Shen et al., 2012). Often, individuals with military experience face numerous stressors that positively contribute to this experience of depression and feelings of shame (Bradbard et al., 2014; Litz et al., 2009). Military culture (often emphasizing shame related to mental health) has also been found to put military personnel at higher risk of experiencing depression in the first place (Jakupcak et al., 2014; Lineberry & O’Connor, 2012). In recent years, self-compassion literature has emerged, showing evidence for its protective effects on mood, functioning, and experiencing distress (Liu et al., 2020; Neff, 2003b; Rutter et al., 2023). Despite this supporting evidence, no study, to our knowledge, has examined self-compassion as a protective factor for the experience of depression in military service members. In an attempt to address this gap and add valuable insight into the current literature by exploring these relationships, for this study, U.S. active duty service members and veterans completed self-report survey measures to assess their experiences of global shame, depression, and self-compassion. A total of 407 participants’ data was included in the study’s analyses. Quantitative survey data indicated that shame was significantly correlated to depression. Additionally, self-compassion was significantly inversely related to shame and depression. Moderation analyses, however, did not indicate that self-compassion moderates the relationship between shame and depression. The effects of gender identity and rurality status on the moderating effect were also explored and discussed, as well as the clinical implications of such findings and future directions.

OCLC Number

1448359154

Research Data and Supplementary Material

No

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