Abstract
Self-compassion, which refers to the tendency of being kind and understanding to oneself when confronted with personal failings and difficulties, is increasingly investigated as a protective factor within the context of mental health problems. In this invited paper, I will briefly introduce the concept of self-compassion and give an overview of the research that has examined its relationship with psychopathology in youth. Then I will make my critical point regarding the assessment of self-compassion: the scales that are currently used for measuring this construct include a large number of reversely scored, negative items that measure the precise opposite of having compassion with oneself. I present evidence (partly on the basis of own data) that these negative items do not reflect the true protective nature of self-compassion and tend to inflate the relation with psychopathology. My recommendation is to remove the negative items from the scales and to assess self-compassion by means of a set of items that truly reflect its protective nature.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1461-1465 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Journal of Child and Family Studies |
| Volume | 25 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - May 2016 |
Keywords
- Self-compassion
- Psychopathology
- Youths
- Assessment
- ESTEEM