A Reconsideration of the Self-Compassion Scale’s Total Score: Self-Compassion versus Self-Criticism

Abstract

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.

Incorporating psychoeducation, mindfulness and self-compassion in a new programme for binge eating (BEfree): Exploring processes of change

“…Although the factor structure of SCS is an ongoing topic of research (López et al, 2015;Neff, 2016), it has been recently shown that SCS might also present a two-factor structure: one factor that assess self-compassion attitude (a composite of self-kindness, common humanity and mindfulness) and one factor of a selfcriticism attitude (that results from the sum of self-judgement, isolation and over-identification). Participants respond according to a 5-point Likert scale (1 = almost never; 5 = almost always).…”

The development of compassionate engagement and action scales for self and others

“…Reaching back to before even Freud [32] there is considerable evidence that having a hostile, contemptuous and critical approach to oneself, in contrast to a supportive and compassionate one, is highly associated with vulnerabilities to a range of mental health problems, particularly depression [46,65,81,95]. Importantly it is the emotions associated with the self-criticism as much of the content, that drives the mental health difficulties [119].…”

“…There is controversy over these constructs and their measurement particularly the combining of negative and positive items as a single measure and construct [15,74,81,90,101,120]. Indeed, one can be high on both or low on both and get the same score.…”

“…The scale has good internal consistency (Cronbach alpha scores ranging from .75 to .81), and test-retest correlations over 3 weeks are high (ranging from .80 to .88). For this study, given the problems associated with reporting a one factor solution, and increasing evidence that it can generate a reliable two factor solution, and the nature of our study,we report on the two factor solution (e.g., [81,90]). …”

Mindfulness and Self-compassion as Unique and Common Predictors of Affect in the General Population

“…However, recent evidence indicated that it is not meaningful to use a total score, since a six-factor hierarchical structure has not being replicated in community, clinical, nor meditating samples (Williams et al 2014). Some studies have found evidence for a six-factor correlated structured for the SCS (Petrocchi et al 2013; Hupfeld and Ruffieux 2011), whereas others showed support for a two-factor structure with one factor containing the positive items and the other the negative items (Costa et al 2015; López et al 2015). Recent evidence showed that these two factors correlate differently to psychological symptoms (Muris and Petrocchi 2016); in line, some authors recommend the exclusive use of the positive items as a measure of self-compassion (Muris 2015; Muris et al 2016).…”