Focus Area: Self Compassion
Overview: The Self-Compassion Scale, Short Form looks at the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors associated with 1. Self-kindness vs. self-judgement, 2. Common humanity vs. isolation, and 3. Mindfulness vs. over-identification. The first piece of each of these represents self compassion while the latter piece represents a lack of compassion.
Total number of items: 12
Administration: Self-report
Standardized cadence: Weekly
Supported subscales: Self-Kindness, Self-Judgment, Common Humanity, Isolation, Mindfulness, Over-identified
Age range: 14+
Scoring and interpretation: Each answer is scored on a 5-point Likert scale from 1, "Almost never," to 5, "Almost always." Scores are summed and total scores range from 12 to 60. Half of the questions are reverse scored including 1, 4, 8, 9, 11, 12.
In addition, there are six subscales with two questions per subscale:
Self-Kindness subscale= 2 & 6
Self-Judgment subscale= 11 & 12
Common Humanity subscale= 5 & 10
Isolation subscale= 4 & 8
Mindfulness subscale= 3 & 7
Over-identification subscale= 1 & 9
Blueprint is set up to sum the scores but some clinicians/researchers like to use the average score for the SCS-SF. To find an average, divide the total by 12, the number of questions.
Reliability/Validity: Cronbach’s alpha was found to be ≥ .86. In addition, the short form correlated almost perfectly with the long form of the SCS (r ≥ .97 all samples). The subscales are a little less reliable on the short form vs. the long form because each subscale contains fewer questions. If more information about a certain subscale is needed, the long form SCS may be useful.
Additional information: