From interpersonal trauma to psychopathology: Self-compassion and shame in a sequential mediation model.

OBJECTIVE Existing research suggests that trauma type, self-compassion, and shame have important implications in the development of psychopathology following trauma exposure. However, the interplay between these factors is not well understood. The present study investigated whether self-compassion and shame sequentially mediate the association between trauma type and a latent factor of posttrauma psychopathology. METHOD Using cross-sectional data from 200 female undergraduates with reported trauma exposure, the present study investigated associations between trauma type, Life Events Checklist for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition; classified into interpersonal (1) vs. noninterpersonal (0) trauma, shame (Experience of Shame Scale), and self-compassion (Self-Compassion Scale-Short Form) on a latent psychopathology factor, modeled as posttraumatic stress (Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition), depression, and anxiety (Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21). RESULTS A structural equation model with 5,000 bootstrapped iterations revealed that self-compassion mediated the relationship between trauma type and shame (β = 0.12, p = .007), which had a stronger relationship with psychopathology (β = 0.56, p < .001) than did trauma type (β = 0.11, p = .03) or self-compassion (β = -0.23, p = .003) alone. CONCLUSIONS This study highlights the importance of addressing self-compassion and shame in the relationship between interpersonal trauma exposure and trauma-related psychopathology among young adult women. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).