Adaptation and Validation of a Scale for Measuring Self-Compassion in Early Childhood

• In Event: Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Topic - Social, Emotional, Personality

Abstract

The overarching goal of this research was to adapt and validate a scale for measuring emerging self-compassion in early childhood. Objectives included assessing the relationship between early self-compassion and early emotional well-being and evaluating parent and child self-compassion for congruence. Several early social and emotional learning programs include themes of self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness (Flook et al., 2015, Thierry et al., 2016; Kim et al., 2020). However, there is currently no measure for identifying this early resilience mechanism called self-compassion. Three hypotheses were proposed: (1) the Self-Compassion Scale for Early Childhood (SCS-EC) would demonstrate adequate fit and reliability; (2) parent reports of their child’s early self-compassion would be associated with their reports of their child’s early emotion regulation, empathy, self-esteem, emotional well-being, temperament, and negatively with internalized behaviors; (3) parent reports of self and child characteristics, including self-compassion, emotion regulation, and empathy would be associated.
To assess positive and negative aspects of self-compassion, we adapted Neff’s (2003) Self-Compassion Scale for adults to create a parent-report measure. During pilot testing, parents (N=70) were asked to report on items that assessed early expressions of self-kindness, common humanity, mindfulness (e.g., my child shows openness to problem-solving strategies when dealing with negative feelings), self-judgment, isolation (e.g., my child tends to withdraw from others when sad or disappointed), and over-identification for children aged 3 to 6 years old. The pilot-tested scale was revised and then administered to a larger group of parents (N=170) online for hypothesis testing. The majority (84.8%) of parents were White with 40.9% of the children being 4 year-olds, 29.8% 5-year-olds, and 28.7% 3-year olds.
Confirmatory factor analysis evaluated fit of SCS-EC items (hypothesis 1) and Cronbach’s alphas were computed to measure internal consistency reliability. Pearson’s correlations were calculated to evaluate hypotheses 2 and 3. Results revealed adequate fit indices for a 2-factor model: factor 1 (𝜒.= 2.27, p= .81, RMSEA= .000, RMSEA upper bound= .06, CFI= 1.00, TLI= 1.05, SRMR= .018) and factor 2 (𝜒.= 8.78, p= .119, RMSEA= .066, RMSEA upper bound= .137, CFI= .983, TLI= .967, SRMR= .026). Factor 1 was labeled positive self-compassion (five items with loadings of .484 to .586) and Factor 2, negative self-compassion (five items with loadings of .303 to .720). Internal consistency reliability was acceptable for positive SCS-EC ( =.726) and negative SCS-EC ( = .757). Results also revealed significant associations between early self-compassion and other early emotion-related characteristics including emotion regulation, self-esteem, emotional well-being, temperament, and internalizing behaviors supporting concurrent validity. Furthermore, parent self-compassion was significantly related to both positive (r=.297, p=.01), and negative (r=-.32, p=.01) subscales of the SCS-EC.
This research should be considered as preliminary evidence for a measure of early childhood self-compassion. Future research will focus on observations of child and parent behaviors related to emerging self-compassion and evaluating instrument psychometrics in samples comprised of non-White parents.

Authors

• Jillian LeRae Bailey, Oklahoma State University - Stillwater
  Presenting Author

• Laura Hubbs-Tait, Oklahoma State University - Stillwater
  Non-Presenting Author

• Amy Williamson, Oklahoma State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lucia Ciciolla, Oklahoma State University - Stillwater
  Non-Presenting Author

• Isaac Washburn, Oklahoma State University
  Non-Presenting Author