Validation of the Psychometric Properties of the Self-Compassion Scale. Testing the Factorial Validity and Factorial Invariance of the Measure among Borderline Personality Disorder, Anxiety Disorder, Eating Disorder and General Populations.

BACKGROUND

During the last years, there has been a growing interest in self-compassion. Empirical evidences show that self-compassion is associated with psychological benefits among young adults and it might be considered a buffer factor in several mental disorders.

AIMS

The aim of this study was to validate the psychometric properties of the Self-compassion Scale (SCS: Neff, 2003a) after the initial lack of replicating the original six-factor structure.

METHOD

Data were collected from the overall database of a research centre (56 men and 305 women; mean age = 25.19) and comprised four groups: borderline personality disorder, anxiety disorder, eating disorder and general population.

RESULTS

Confirmatory factor analysis supported a two-factor model (self-compassionate attitude versus self-critical attitude) with good internal consistencies, construct-related validity and external validity. Configural, weak measurement and structural invariance of the two-factor model of SCS were also shown.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings support the generalizability of the two-factor model and show that both properties and interpretations of scores on self-compassion are equivalent across these population groups. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

KEY PRACTITIONER MESSAGE

A two-factor structure of SCS with strong psychometric validity was supported in clinical and non-clinical samples. Helping individuals with limited experiences of compassion to develop positive internal processing systems seems to be related with better mental health, self-acceptance and self-nurturing abilities. The non-probabilistic sampling limits the generalization of our conclusions.