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Self-Compassion Scale (SCS)

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Handbook of Assessment in Mindfulness Research

Abstract

Self-compassion involves relating to ourselves with self-kindness and less self-judgment, feelings of common humanity and fewer feelings of isolation, mindfulness and decreased overidentification in situations of perceived failure, inadequacy, or personal suffering. Most research on self-compassion uses the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS) to measure the construct. The SCS is considered to be reliable and appears to have adequate convergent, discriminant, predictive, and known-groups validity. There is an ongoing discussion about whether self-compassion is better measured as a global construct or whether it is best measured as two separate constructs which represent compassionate versus reduced uncompassionate self-responding. The application of the state-of-the-art bifactor-ESEM framework to the factor structure of the SCS supports the existence of a global self-compassion factor as well as the six specific dimensions but does not support the use of two separate factors. Adaptations of the SCS include a short version, a youth version, a state version, and a measure of compassion for others.

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Acknowledgements

The second author was supported in the preparation of this book chapter by a Horizon Postdoctoral Fellowship from Concordia University and by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (435-2018-0368).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Educational Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

    Kristin D. Neff

  2. Substantive-Methodological Synergy Research Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada

    István Tóth-Király

Authors
  1. Kristin D. Neff
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  2. István Tóth-Király
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kristin D. Neff .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

    Oleg N. Medvedev

  2. North Shore Campus, Auckland Univ of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand

    Christian U. Krägeloh

  3. Dept of Psychology and Neuroscience, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand

    Richard J. Siegert

  4. Augusta University, Raleigh, NC, USA

    Nirbhay N. Singh

Appendix

Appendix

The Self-Compassion Scale

How I Typically Act Toward Myself in Difficult Times.

Please read each statement carefully before answering. To the left of each item, indicate how often you behave in the stated manner, using the following scale:

Almost never

   

Almost always

1

2

   3

   4

   5

1. I’m disapproving and judgmental about my own flaws and inadequacies.

2. When I’m feeling down, I tend to obsess and fixate on everything that’s wrong.

3. When things are going badly for me, I see the difficulties as part of life that everyone goes through.

4. When I think about my inadequacies, it tends to make me feel more separate and cut off from the rest of the world.

5. I try to be loving toward myself when I’m feeling emotional pain.

6. When I fail at something important to me, I become consumed by feelings of inadequacy.

7. When I’m down, I remind myself that there are lots of other people in the world feeling like I am.

8. When times are really difficult, I tend to be tough on myself.

9. When something upsets me, I try to keep my emotions in balance.

10. When I feel inadequate in some way, I try to remind myself that feelings of inadequacy are shared by most people.

11. I’m intolerant and impatient toward those aspects of my personality I don’t like.

12. When I’m going through a very hard time, I give myself the caring and tenderness I need.

13. When I’m feeling down, I tend to feel like most other people are probably happier than I am.

14. When something painful happens, I try to take a balanced view of the situation.

15. I try to see my failings as part of the human condition.

16. When I see aspects of myself that I don’t like, I get down on myself.

17. When I fail at something important to me, I try to keep things in perspective.

18. When I’m really struggling, I tend to feel like other people must be having an easier time of it.

19. I’m kind to myself when I’m experiencing suffering.

20. When something upsets me, I get carried away with my feelings.

21. I can be a bit cold-hearted toward myself when I’m experiencing suffering.

22. When I’m feeling down, I try to approach my feelings with curiosity and openness.

23. I’m tolerant of my own flaws and inadequacies.

24. When something painful happens, I tend to blow the incident out of proportion.

25. When I fail at something that’s important to me, I tend to feel alone in my failure.

26. I try to be understanding and patient toward those aspects of my personality I don’t like.

Coding Key for Subscale Factors:

Self-kindness items: 5, 12, 19, 23, 26

Self-judgment items (reverse scored): 1, 8, 11, 16, 21

Common humanity items: 3, 7, 10, 15

Isolation items (reverse scored): 4, 13, 18, 25

Mindfulness items: 9, 14, 17, 22

Overidentified items (reverse scored): 2, 6, 20, 24

To compute a total self-compassion score, take the mean of each subscale (after reverse coding), and then compute a total mean.

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Neff, K.D., Tóth-Király, I. (2022). Self-Compassion Scale (SCS). In: Medvedev, O.N., Krägeloh, C.U., Siegert, R.J., Singh, N.N. (eds) Handbook of Assessment in Mindfulness Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77644-2_36-1

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