Compassion for Others and Self-Compassion: Levels, Correlates, and Relationship with Psychological Well-being

Angélica López,Adelita V Ranchor,Robbert Sanderman,Maya J Schroevers

doi:10.1007/s12671-017-0777-z

Angélica López, Adelita V Ranchor + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-017-0777-z

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Abstract

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.

Highlights

The interest on the benefits of compassion for others and selfcompassion has grown rapidly during the last decade
The limited number of studies examining compassion for others together with self-compassion suggest that they involve similar brain regions (Longe et al 2010) and that those individuals who are more compassionate towards others could be more compassionate towards themselves (Breines and Chen 2013; Neff and Pommier 2012)
We present results for selfcompassion and self-coldness though we focused on those of self-compassion since our main interest was to assess the positive experience of self-compassion in relationship with compassion for others

Summary

Introduction

The interest on the benefits of compassion for others and selfcompassion has grown rapidly during the last decade. The limited number of studies examining compassion for others together with self-compassion suggest that they involve similar brain regions (Longe et al 2010) and that those individuals who are more compassionate towards others could be more compassionate towards themselves (Breines and Chen 2013; Neff and Pommier 2012). There is still a limited understanding of how much these concepts are similar or different from each other; descriptive data is missing This cross-sectional study among community adults aims to give insight into the mean levels of compassion for others and self-compassion, their association, and their relationship with psychological well-being (i.e., depressive symptoms, negative affect, and positive affect) and demographic factors. We expected self-compassion to be significantly related to depressive symptoms, negative affect, and positive affect (MacBeth and Gumley 2012; Neff 2003a; Neff et al 2007), and compassion for others to be significantly related to positive affect (Jazaieri et al 2014; Mongrain et al 2011)

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