Selfcompassion & self-forgiveness: Assets in the face of perceived injustice in fibromyalgia patients?

Perceived injustice is frequent in fibromyalgia and is associated with psychological distress, disability, and reduced engagement in chronic pain self management. This research examined whether selfcompassion, self-forgiveness difficulties, compassion fears, and catastrophizing predict perceived injustice.

Study 1 included 311 participants recruited through fibromyalgia associations who completed measures,once, of perceived injustice, pain, anxiety, depression, selfcompassion, compassion fears, and self-forgiveness. Study 2 included 32 patients enrolled in an cognitive behavioral pain self management program, assessed at four time points with the same measures except self-forgiveness, compassion fears, and pain intensity; catastrophizing was added.

In Study 1, self-forgiveness difficulties were unrelated to perceived injustice. Regression analyses showed that depression (β = 0.34), anxiety (β = 0.20), pain (β = 0.16), and low selfcompassion (β = -0.14) explained 39.07% of variance. When selfcompassion subcomponents were included, isolation (β = 0.31), depression (β = 0.31), anxiety (β = 0.24), and pain (β = 0.12) were positive predictors, whereas over-identification (β = -0.16) emerged as a negative predictor, explaining 42.72% of variance. Selfcompassion fears slightly moderated the effect of over-identification. In Study 2, at six month follow up, catastrophizing (β = 0.40), selfcompassion (β = -0.32), and anxiety (β = 0.26) predicted 65.48% of variance. Over-identification (β = 0.35) and catastrophizing (β = 0.54) predicted perceived injustice when selfcompassion subcomponents were examined, explaining 60.74% of variance.

Across both samples, perceived injustice is better explained by psychological distress, low selfcompassion, and negative selfcompassion subcomponents than by pain intensity.