High Artistic Achievements and Low Emotion Dysregulation: The Moderating and Mediating Role of Self-compassion

Relatively little research has addressed the positive outcomes of everyday creative achievements. Based on the Honing Theory of Creativity, the present research aimed to analyze the relation between artistic achievements and low emotion dysregulation. The second aim was to examine the mediating and moderating role of self-compassion in this relation, as a factor which has previously been associated both with creativity and low emotion dysregulation. A cross-sectional research was conducted among 168 participants, who were recruited in academic and non-academic settings. The participants mostly presented everyday levels of creative achievements. They completed questionnaires about their creative achievements in the arts, along with their difficulties in emotion regulation and their levels of self-compassion. The results showed that artistic achievements were negatively associated with emotion dysregulation, and positively associated with self-compassion. Mediation analyses showed that the significant relation between high artistic achievements and low emotion dysregulation was mediated by self-compassion. Moderation analyses indicated that individuals with the lowest-to-moderate levels of self-compassion reported the highest associations between high artistic achievements and low emotion dysregulation. No significant moderation effect was found for individuals with high levels of self-compassion. Overall, this research found positive associations between artistic creativity and indices of positive psychological functioning.