Can self-compassion help people regulate unattained goals and emotional reactions toward setbacks?

Abstract

The current study examined whether self-compassion helps individuals cope with the experience of unattainable goals. Because self-compassion entails taking a balanced perspective of one's suffering and maintaining emotional stability, this study predicted that individuals high in self-compassion would be more likely to disengage from their unattained goals and reengage in an alternative important goal, and thus, be less likely to experience negative emotions toward their setback in goal attainment. Japanese undergraduates (N = 177), who had completed a measure of self-compassion a week prior, recalled their personal failure of goal attainment and answered items about the degree of goal disengagement, goal reengagement, and current negative emotions toward their setback. Structural equation modeling showed that self-compassion was positively related to goal reengagement and goal disengagement, and that self-compassion had a significant negative indirect effect on current negative emotions via goal disengagement, in addition to a negative direct effect. These results were mainly in accordance with predictions, suggesting that self-compassion is a psychological resource for coping with setbacks in goal attainment.