The Self-Compassion Scale (SCS) is currently the only self-report instrument to measure self-compassion. The SCS is widely used despite the limited evidence for the scale’s psychometric properties, with validation studies commonly performed in college students. The current study examined the factor structure, reliability, and construct validity of the SCS in a large representative sample from the community. The study was conducted in 1,736 persons, of whom 1,643 were included in the analyses. Besides the SCS, data was collected on positive and negative indicators of psychological functioning, as well as on rumination and neuroticism. Analyses included confirmatory factor analyses (CFA), exploratory factor analyses (EFA), and correlations. CFA showed that the SCS’s proposed six-factor structure could not be replicated. EFA suggested a two-factor solution, formed by the positively and negatively formulated items respectively. Internal consistency was good for the two identified factors. The negative factor (i.e., sum score of the negatively formulated items) correlated moderately to strongly to negative affect, depressive symptoms, perceived stress, as well as to rumination and neuroticism. Compared to this negative factor, the positive factor (i.e., sum score of the positively formulated items) correlated weaker to these indicators, and relatively more strongly to positive affect. Results from this study do not justify the common use of the SCS total score as an overall indicator of self-compassion, and provide support for the idea, as also assumed by others, that it is important to make a distinction between self-compassion and self-criticism.

Compassion for others and self-compassion are assumed to be closely related concepts. Yet, as they have been mostly studied separately, little is known about their relationship and to what extent they differ or resemble each other with respect to their correlates. This cross-sectional study aimed to gain knowledge on their mean levels, interrelationship, and relationships to psychological well-being and demographic factors. A community sample of 328 adults completed a series of standardized self-report questionnaires to assess compassion for others, self-compassion, depressive symptoms, negative affect, and positive affect. Results showed that compassion for others and self-compassion were not significantly related. Self-compassion was more strongly related to negative and positive indicators of affect than compassion for others. Compassion for others was higher in women than in men, and in low educated individuals compared to higher educated individuals. In contrast, self-compassion was lower in low educated individuals. Future research can build up on these findings to enlarge the understanding of how compassion for others and self-compassion relate and differ from each other.

Self-compassion has shown to be beneficial for individuals’ wellbeing; in particular, it has been associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms. The purpose of this study was to further explore the association between self-compassion, as measured by the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS), and depressive symptoms, in a large representative sample of community adults (n = 734, Mean age = 55.7, SD = 15.2). We examined the association of depressive symptoms with the SCS total score, the SCS six subscales (i.e., self-kindness, common humanity, mindfulness, self-judgment, isolation, and over-identification), and the SCS positive and negative items (referred to as self-compassion and self-coldness, respectively). In addition, we explored the predictive ability of self-compassion, self-coldness, and the SCS six subscales on depressive symptoms both cross-sectionally and over a 1-year period of time. Finally, we sought to test the moderating role of self-compassion on the association between self-coldness and depressive symptoms. Results showed that the SCS negative items and subscales were more strongly related to depressive symptoms than the SCS positive items and subscales. Accordingly, self-coldness was a stronger predictor of depressive symptoms, cross-sectionally and over a 1-year timeframe, when compared with self-compassion. Particularly, the feeling of being isolated was shown to be strongly associated with depressive symptoms. We did not find substantial evidence for a moderating role of self-compassion on the association between self-coldness and depressive symptoms. Future research needs to determine the added value of assessing self-coldness and whether or not it is an essential part of self-compassion.

In contrast to the increased research interest in the benefits of mindfulness and self-compassion, relatively few studies have examined their unique and combined effects in predicting affect. This cross-sectional study examined the predictive value of mindfulness and self-compassion for depressive symptoms, negative affect, and positive affect in a large representative sample of community adults (N = 1736). The Five Facets of Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) was used as a measure of mindfulness and the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS) as a measure of self-compassion. Five FFMQ facets were explored: observe, describe, act with awareness, non-judgment, and non-reactivity. Two SCS facets were explored: its positive items (SCS Pos) and its negative items (SCS Neg). When simultaneously examining all seven facets of mindfulness and self-compassion, three of the five FFMQ facets and SCS Neg significantly predicted both depressive symptoms and negative affect, with SCS Neg and act with awareness being the strongest predictors. These findings suggest that a harsh attitude towards oneself and a lack of attention when acting have the greatest value in predicting the presence of psychological symptoms. With respect to positive affect, four of the five FFMQ facets (except non-judgment) were significant predictors, with no unique predictive value of the two SCS’s facets, suggesting that mindfulness is a more important predictor of positive affect than self-compassion, as measured by the FFMQ and SCS.

In this study, different factor analysis models were employed to test the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS) in 11 distinct populations (n ¼ 15,266) in different countries. The results strongly suggest that the most appropriate use of the SCS is to measure levels of Self-Compassionate responding (positive items) and Self-Uncompassionate responding (negative items) separately.

Objectives Several scholars have questioned the use of the total Self-Compassion Scale (SCS) score as an appropriate index for measuring self-compassion as a protective psychological trait. Methods We present two new studies to further examine the relationships between SCS or SCS-Short Form scores and symptoms of anxiety and depression in non-clinical samples of adolescents (Ns being 106 and 52). Results Both studies showed that most of the variance in internalizing symptoms was explained by the uncompassionate self-responding (USR) components of the SCS and that the share of the compassionate self-responding (CSR) was fairly small. Moreover, when controlling for other relevant variables (study 1: neuroticism and extraversion; study 2: self-esteem and lack of self-esteem), the unique contribution of CSR in explaining variance was even completely abolished. Conclusions We argue that the inclusion of the USR components in the SCS (1) hinders the proper investigation of the protective role of self-compassion, (2) inflates the relationship with internalizing symptoms, and (3) obscures the (fair) comparison with other etiological factors of psychopathology. Within a context of internalizing problems, the SCS or SCS-SF can better be viewed as an index of vulnerability than as a measure of protection.

The activity in scientific research has been able to be studied, measured, compared, analyzed and objectified through Scientometrics, discipline that applies to all the literature of scientific character, mathematical and statistical methods, thus achieving, that social aspects of science can be quantified. From the scientific literature, scientific publications (tangible products of the research) are derived, which are specifically studied by the bibliometrics. This last one, is a branch of the Scientometrics, that is guided under the assumption that the scientific discoveries and the research results are published in scientific journals, so its unit of analysis is the scientific article. The word bibliometrics was defined for first time by Alan Pritchard in 1969, and since then, multiple concepts of this term have been developed. However, it has reached to the consensus that this methodological tool allows to know the scientific production (in quantity, quality and impact) on various topics, journals, authors and countries, among others. Its main research lines are the methodology for bibliometrics, the scientific disciplines and the health management and policies. Likewise, it has descriptive, evaluation and supervision/monitoring functions of the research activity, on which its classification into levels (micro, meso and maso) will depend directly. Because it has components from various sciences, among them the mathematics, its methodology and theory are based on mathematical models, from which the bibliometric indicators are derived. Although there are other types of research such as systematic reviews and meta-analyzes, these, require a better management in the field of research and of the statistical measurement, as well as more resources. On the other hand, a bibliometric study owns the nobility of being within the reach of students and researchers due to its methodology, practicality, relevance, resource saving, potential to extend to most of the scientific areas, multiple applications and favoring the fact of not committing ethical misconduct related to research. Finally, although bibliometrics is often underestimated, its power and importance as a tool to manage evidence-based knowledge and to serve as a basis for other types of studies such as systematic reviews must be emphasized.

Children born with a specific disability require primary caregivers who are trained to care for and enhance their abilities. The present study is a bibliometric analysis of the publications of psychological interventions with a randomized controlled trial (RCT) that have been realized in parents of children with disabilities in the period from 1980 to 2019. As part of the search strategy, the Cochrane Library, Pubmed and Elsevier databases were used, making different combinations with the keywords "children with disabilities", "parents", "intervention" and "randomized controlled trial”. The outcomes obtained reflect that 2015 was the year with the highest scientific activity in this field, being the Research in Developmental Disabilities journal the most prominent and the Cochrane Library database the one who concentrates the largest number of articles. In addition, the investigations have been realized in Anglo-Saxon countries such as Canada and United States, with an inclination towards the build-up of articles individually and focused on disabilities such as Down Syndrome and Autism Spectrum Disorder. Regarding the characteristics of these interventions, it can be summarized that their format is group with an approximate duration of 2 hours per session, being the cognitive-behavioral approach and the behavioral control techniques the ones that stand out the most. Finally, the variable that has been more worked is effective communication and the most used statistical test to measure the effects of interventions is MANOVA.