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Development and Validation of the Self-Compassion Scale for Youth

Neff, K. D., Bluth, K., Toth-Kiraly, I., Davidson, O., Knox, M. C., Williamson, Z., & Costigan, A.
2021

From the abstract: "We present a series of studies on the development and validation of the Self-Compassion Scale—Youth version (SCS-Y), which is intended for use with early adolescents in middle school. Study 1 (N = 279, Mage = 12.17) describes the selection of 17 items out of a pool of 36 potential items, with three items each representing the subscales of self-kindness, mindfulness, common humanity, self-judgment, isolation, and two items representing over-identification. Using state-of-the-art psychometric analyses ideal for examining multidimensional constructs like self-compassion—bifactor exploratory structural equation modeling (bifactor-ESEM)—findings supported the use of a general self-compassion score and six subscale scores. Study 2 cross-validated the factor structure of the SCS-Y with a second sample of youths (N = 402, Mage = 12.43). Study 3 found support for the test-retest reliability of the SCS-Y (N = 102, Mage = 12.52). Study 4 (N = 212, Mage = 12.18) established construct validity for the SCS-Y by demonstrating that SCS-Y scores were significantly associated with mindfulness, happiness, life-satisfaction, depression, resilience, and achievement goal orientation in expected directions. Overall, findings suggest that the SCS-Y is a reliable and valid measure of self-compassion for use with youths."

Citation

Neff, K. D., Bluth, K., Toth-Kiraly, I., Davidson, O., Knox, M. C., Williamson, Z., & Costigan, A. (2021). Development and validation of the Self-Compassion Scale for youth. Journal of Personality Assessment, 103(1), 92-105. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223891.2020.1729774

DOI

10.1080/00223891.2020.1729774