Abstract
Objectives: Self-compassion is a psychological construct associated with self-acceptance and coping with the aging process. The Self-Compassion Scale (SCS), in both long and short forms, is the most widely used measure of self-compassion. Studies on the psychometric properties of the short form (SCS-SF) are scarce. The aim of this study was to translate into Swedish and test the psychometric properties of the SCS-SF. Another aim was to investigate whether self-compassion differs by age and gender in older adults.Method: We tested the Swedish SCS-SF in a sample of 594 randomly selected older adults, aged 66 to 102 years, for internal consistency, construct validity, and factor structure.Results: The results showed the SCS-SF had acceptable internal consistency in the total sample (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.68) and somewhat higher (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.76) in the youngest old (age 66 years). The six-factor structure found in the original study was not observed in confirmatory factor analyses in our older sample. Exploratory factor analyses showed that a two-factor solution, formed by the positive and negative components had the best fit; however, only the negative component had good internal consistency.Conclusion: Overall, the SCS-SF seemed to have insufficient reliability in this sample of older adults and further studies are needed to see whether new instruments are needed for this population. Self-compassion was generally higher in men than women, but did not differ by age in this sample of older adults.
Highlights
Self-compassion is a relatively new concept in psychology conceptualized as the ability to care for oneself in difficult life circumstances, to endure painful feelings, and to feel connected with others in moments of suffering (Neff, 2003)
Exploratory factor analyses showed that a two-factor solution, formed by the positive (SK, common humanity (CH), and MI) and negative (SJ, I, and OI) items had the best fit and good internal consistency
confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) analyses indicated that the factor structure of the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS)-SF did not meet the criteria for an acceptable model fit in any of the tested models
Summary
Self-compassion is a relatively new concept in psychology conceptualized as the ability to care for oneself in difficult life circumstances, to endure painful feelings, and to feel connected with others in moments of suffering (Neff, 2003). Self-compassion can be important, since a self-compassionate mindset can provide an accepting perspective on facing hardships related to ageing (Allen, Goldwasser, & Leary, 2012). Older adults with high levels of self-compassion had a more positive attitude to ageing than those with lower scores on this measure (Allen & Leary, 2013). Self-compassion in older adults seemed to be associated with higher levels of wisdom, integration, acceptance of one’s past life experiences, and higher levels of meaning in life (Phillips & Ferguson, 2013). In the Phillips and Ferguson study (2013) of 185 non-randomly selected older adults aged 65–92, 56.8% women, age and self-compassion were not related
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