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Is Self‐Compassion Selfish? The Development of Self‐Compassion, Empathy, and Prosocial Behavior in Adolescence
Author(s) -
Marshall Sarah L.,
Ciarrochi Joseph,
Parker Philip D.,
Sahdra Baljinder K.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of research on adolescence
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.342
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1532-7795
pISSN - 1050-8392
DOI - 10.1111/jora.12492
Subject(s) - prosocial behavior , empathy , psychology , personal distress , self compassion , empathic concern , distress , developmental psychology , compassion , helping behavior , social psychology , clinical psychology , mindfulness , perspective taking , political science , law
Both self‐compassion and empathy have been theorized to promote prosociality in youth, but there is little longitudinal data examining this possibility. We assessed self‐compassion, empathy, and peer‐rated prosociality yearly, in a cohort of 2,078 youth across 17 schools ( M age at T1 = 14.65 years; 49.2% female), as they progressed from Grade 9–12. We utilized multi‐level modeling to predict prosocial behavior, nested within students, classes, and schools. We found that self‐compassion and empathy uniquely predicted peer‐rated prosocial behavior. However, only empathy predicted increases in prosocial behavior across time. While self‐compassion is not selfish, it does not appear to facilitate the development of kindness toward adolescent peers. Self‐compassion may help to buffer against possible negative effects of empathic distress.