Brad Elphinstone

Initiatives that collect and share genomic data to advance health research are widespread and accelerating. Commercial interests in these efforts, while vital, may erode public trust and willingness to provide personal genomic data, upon which these initiatives depend. Understanding public attitudes towards providing genomic data for health research in the context of commercial involvement is critical. A PRISMA-guided search of six online academic databases identified 113 quantitative and qualitative studies using primary data pertaining to public attitudes towards commercial actors in the management, collection, access, and use of biobank and genomic data. The presence of commercial interests yields interrelated public concerns around consent, privacy and data security, trust in science and scientists, benefit sharing, and the ownership and control of health data. Carefully considered regulatory and data governance and access policies are therefore required to maintain public trust and support for genomic health initiatives.

Objectives Self‐compassion constitutes a positive way of relating towards the self that enables emotional regulation and reduces emotional distress. This research first explored differences among a sample of persons with social anxiety disorder (SAD) and groups of high socially anxious (HSA) and low socially anxious (LSA) students on self‐compassion, emotion regulation, and social anxiety. We then investigated emotional regulation as a mediator of the prediction of social anxiety by self‐compassion and the influence of depressed mood on those relationships. Design Study 1 compared a SAD group to matched groups of HSA and LSA students. Study 2 utilized the total sample ( n = 330 students and n = 33 SAD) to test mediation. Self‐compassion and emotion regulation were predictors of social anxiety and depression a covariate. Results In Study 1, the SAD group did not differ from the HSA group on most aspects of self‐compassion and emotional regulation but was higher on depression. Both were lower on most measures and higher on depression than the LSA group. In Study 2, higher self‐compassion predicted lower social interaction anxiety, and emotional regulation strategies mediated this effect, regardless of depression. However, for social performance anxiety, controlling for depression removed mediation. Refraining from uncompassionate responses was directly connected to social anxiety, whereas compassionate responses influenced social anxiety via emotional regulation. Conclusions Results affirm the ameliorative role of self‐compassion on social anxiety and emotion regulation strategies as mechanisms of that influence. However, self‐compassion's influence was affected by depression and type of social anxiety. Also, refraining from uncompassionate self‐responding appears to be of prime importance in predicting social anxiety, whereas compassionate self‐responding influences social anxiety via emotion regulation.