Meaning in life accounts for the association between long-term ostracism and depressive symptoms: The moderating role of self-compassion

ABSTRACT

According to the temporal need–threat model, ostracism results in three stages of responses. Research on the responses to ostracism has predominantly focused on the first two stages, and the literature needs further empirical evidence on responses to long-term ostracism. We conducted two studies to better understand the association between long-term ostracism and depressive symptoms. Study 1 found a positive association between long-term ostracism and depressive symptoms. More importantly, Study 1 found the threatened sense of meaning in life partially mediates the relationship. Study 2 further found that self-compassion, a positive and healthy trait, weakens the relationship between long-term ostracism and depressive symptoms. More specifically, self-compassion moderates the relationship between the threatened sense of meaning in life and depressive symptoms. Our findings not only further our understanding about the negative consequences of long-term ostracism but also suggest a possible way to mitigate depressive symptoms associated with long-term ostracism.

KEYWORDS:

• Ostracism
• social exclusion
• depressive symptoms
• meaning in life
• self-compassion
• long-term
• chronic

Data availability statement

The data described in this article are openly available in the Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/9xsvj/

Open Scholarship

This article has earned the Center for Open science badges for Open Data and Open Materials through Open Practices Disclosure. The data and materials are openly accessible at https://osf.io/9xsvj/

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Hong Kong Research Grants Council’s General Research Fund [17672816]; the HKU Seed Funding for Basic Research [201611159307].

Notes on contributors

Tonglin Jiang

Tonglin Jiang, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Hong Kong.

Zhansheng Chen

Zhansheng Chen, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Univerity of Hong Kong.