The association between self-compassion and self-rated health in 26 samples

Fuschia M Sirois

doi:10.1186/s12889-020-8183-1

Abstract

BackgroundAlthough there is growing evidence of the relevance of self-compassion for understanding health outcomes, few studies have examined self-compassion in relation to self-reported physical health status, also known as self-rated health (SRH). This study addressed this gap by examining the associations between self-compassion and SRH across multiple samples and after accounting for the contributions of positive and negative affect.MethodsData from 26 samples (total N = 6127), comprised of 6 university student, 16 community adult, and 4 chronic illness samples, were included in the current analyses. Participants in each sample completed a survey including measures of self-compassion and SRH. Thirteen samples also completed a measure of positive and negative affect. The associations between self-compassion and SRH were statistically meta-analysed. Moderator analyses were conducted to test whether the associations varied as a function of sample type, age or participant sex. Semipartial correlations were calculated controlling for positive and negative affect in 13 samples and meta-analysed.ResultsFindings indicated that self-compassion was significantly associated with higher SRH across the 26 samples (ravg = .25; CI: .22, .28). The associations did not however vary significantly across sample types, or as a function of participant sex or age. The meta-analyses of the adjusted effects found that self-compassion remained significantly associated with higher SRH after accounting the contributions of positive (sravg = .11; CI: .07, .15) and negative (sravg = .25; CI: .06, .15) affect.ConclusionsThe current study demonstrated that self-compassion is robustly associated with higher SRH across 26 samples and that this association remained significant after adjusting for the influence of positive and negative affect in 13 samples. Further longitudinal and experimental research is needed to verify the causal direction between self-compassion and SRH suggested by theory and the current findings.

Highlights

There is growing evidence of the relevance of self-compassion for understanding health outcomes, few studies have examined self-compassion in relation to self-reported physical health status, known as self-rated health (SRH)
Self-compassion, positive affect, and self-rated health Across the 13 samples that included a measure of state positive affect, the meta-analysis revealed the expected positive associations between self-compassion and positive affect, and between positive affect and SRH
The meta-analysis of the effects of self-compassion and SRH, accounting for the contributions of positive affect found that self-compassion remained on average, positively and significantly associated with SRH, the magnitude of the average adjusted effect was reduced to a small effect compared to the small to moderate sized effect for the unadjusted average effect

Summary

Introduction

There is growing evidence of the relevance of self-compassion for understanding health outcomes, few studies have examined self-compassion in relation to self-reported physical health status, known as self-rated health (SRH). This study addressed this gap by examining the associations between selfcompassion and SRH across multiple samples and after accounting for the contributions of positive and negative affect. Given evidence supporting the protective role of self-compassion for reducing stress and for promoting health behaviours, and the known contributions of stress and health behaviours to physical health status [16], it is reasonable to expect that self-compassion would be associated with better physical

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