Challenges and demands vary and fluctuate during parenthood. The demands of educating and fulfilling their children's needs make parenting a stressful experience for parents [1]. Parenting stress is the subjective experience of difficulties that arises when demands exceed the expected and actual resources available to the parents to fulfill their parenting roles [2, 3]. Even though parenting stress is considered normal and is experienced by all parents to some level, it can negatively influence both child development and the parents' health [2]. Research shows that the level of stress experienced by parents can harm their parenting style [4]. This impact can manifest in authoritarian parenting, lower maternal sensitivity [5], lack of responsiveness and warmth towards their children [6], more harsh reactive caregiving [2], and frequent punishing attitudes [7]. Furthermore, the relationship between parents and children is negatively influenced by parenting stress, which predicts children's nonoptimal cognitive and social-emotional outcomes [2].

On the bright side, the parents' characteristics can affect how they approach stressful life events [8] and implement successful coping strategies [2]. One factor that helps parents cope with some detrimental effects associated with parenting stress is self-compassion [8]. Self-compassion is defined as being open and moved by the suffering experienced by oneself, caring and being kind to oneself, understanding and not judging oneself harshly when experiencing failure or facing self-deficiencies, and recognizing that this experience is a normal part of being a human [9]. Self-compassion is a way of dealing with oneself adaptively and positively, without harsh self-assessments or social comparisons, regardless of one's level of performance or self-ability [10-13]. Neff [11, 14] conceptualizes self-compassion into six opposing constructs, half of which are positively worded (self-kindness, common humanity, mindfulness), and the other half are negatively worded (self-judgment, isolation, over-identification) [15].

Previous studies have shown that self-compassion is associated with lower levels of negative outcomes, such as depression and anxiety, and higher levels of positive affect [16, 17]. Research on the benefits of self-compassion for parents and their children shows consistent findings in the general population [8, 18-20]. Self-compassion in parents is essential in protecting and maintaining psychological well-being in the family [19]. Facilitating parents to develop self-compassion can empower them to face conditions that trigger stress and uncertainty in a better way [18].

Self-compassion is also related to parents' well-being indicators, including higher levels of life satisfaction and lower levels of stress in parents [8]. Self-compassion was negatively correlated to parenting stress, and parenting stress mediated the positive association between self-compassion and child well-being [20]. One of the components of self-compassion, namely mindfulness, played a role in reducing stress and improving parents' well-being [21, 22]. Longitudinal research on depressed mothers and fathers found that parents who cherish themselves tend to use healthier coping strategies to deal with their children's emotions [23].

Most research about self-compassion in the parents' [8, 23-26] is generally measured using the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS) [14]. SCS measures six dimensions of self-compassion in a general context. SCS has gone through a validation process that is repeated and empirically tested [27, 28]. SCS has strong convergent and discriminant validity, good test-retest reliability, and does not correlate with the social desirability [29]. Another study found that SCS has an internal consistency coefficient, Cronbach's Alpha = 0.92. Each self-compassion dimension has a coefficient of 0.57 to 0.80 [14], which shows that the items have good quality. Some studies also use the Self-Compassion Scale-Short Form/SCS-SF [30]. However, due to its unidimensional nature and poor reliability in the subscales, SCS-SF is not recommended to be utilized in examining six subscales separately [28].

Referring to the specific characteristics of parents, SCS items that are general could not fully reflect the parenting context. This condition implicates that the self-compassion score measured by SCS is seemingly difficult to be interpreted the same as the parenting self-compassion. Until this study was conducted, the only self-compassion measurement in the parenting context was the adaptation of SCS to the specific context of parenting for parents of children with type 1 diabetes [15]. In this study, SCS has been adapted to assess parents' self-treatment and responses when facing specific challenges such as managing if their child has type 1 diabetes. This adaptation of a diabetes-specific measure of self-compassion can be more accurate in reflecting parents' responses to their child's diabetes, which may be different from how they face other challenges in their lives. This finding shows a growing need to develop a self-compassion measurement tailored to the context of parenting.

Based on Tanenbaum's recommendation [15] and the need to measure self-compassion in the parenting context, the current study aims to modify, adapt and validate the SCS-modification in the parenting context (Parenting Self-Compassion Scale/P-SCS), using Bahasa Indonesia. The validation process of the measurement used factor analysis and convergent validity. Convergent validity was calculated by correlating SCS and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES). Based on Neff's [14] research, it was hypothesized that self-esteem would have a moderate, positive correlation with self-compassion. In this case, people with a higher level of self-compassion have more self-esteem and vice versa [14].

The modification and adaptation of SCS consist of six stages, referring to the guidelines released by the International Test Commission [31]. The stages are as follows: 1) Pre-Condition, which consists of obtaining permission to use the SCS from the original author, as well as reviewing the construct, factors, and indicators of self-compassion, 2) Test Development, which includes translating (forward and backward translation) and inserting parenting context into SCS items, 3) Confirmation, which includes expert reviews with three experts to generate CVI (Content Validity Index) and cognitive interviews with two mothers of school-aged children to identify items that have a mismatch between the participant's interpretation and adaptation's goals, then to modify these items based on the participants' responses, 4) Administration of the instrument, 5) Psychometric properties analysis, such as reliability and construct validity through CFA and convergent validity with Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale (RSES), and 6) Documentation of the results obtained from the measurement adaptation.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study of adapting and validating the SCS-modification in the parenting context (Parenting Self-Compassion Scale/P-SCS) for the Indonesian population. The result showed an agreement between the P-SCS and the SCS theoretical model developed by Neff [14]. The authors found that the P-SCS has intercorrelated six-component model of self-compassion (self-kindness, self-judgment, common humanity, isolation, mindfulness, and over-identification) [14].

This study found a poor fit in the higher-order model approach on P-SCS. A similar result is also found in various self-compassion studies [15, 43, 44], which considered that a six-factor correlated model and a bifactor model are representatives of investigating the validity of self-compassion in specific populations [28, 42, 45]. Thus, it can be inferred that the higher-order model, is not suitable for analyzing the relationship between factors of general self-compassion and its subscale factors [45].

As hypothesized, this study also indicated that P-SCS is moderately correlated with self-esteem, as measured by the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES). Parents with high self-compassion are more likely to have higher self-esteem than participants with low self-compassion. This relationship is expected because individuals who are being kind to themselves, acknowledge their existence as a part of a more significant human being, and can take a mindful perspective on themselves are more likely to have higher self-worth compared to individuals who criticize themselves harshly, feel trapped in their failures or inadequacies, and over-identify their feelings [9]. In addition, a moderate correlation between self-compassion and self-esteem indicates that they measure different constructs [14].

The authors decided to eliminate four items (item 5; Self-Kindness subscale, item 21; Self-Judgment subscale, and item 3,7 from the Common Humanity subscale) due to the low item-total correlation of these items. A possible explanation for the low item-total correlation is the wording of the items that tend to be foreign in the Indonesian context, such as “try to be loving towards myself” in item 5, and “can be a bit cold-hearted towards me myself” in item 21. Meanwhile, the wording of items 3 (“part of life that all parents experience”) and 7 (“there are lots of other parents feeling like I am”) of Common Humanity might elicit multiple interpretations, as some parents might view parenting as a unique experience and impose different challenges to each parent (i.e., those who had children with disabilities or illness). The issue with Common Humanity items was also found in the adaptation of SCS for individuals with type 1 diabetes [41] and the parents of children of type 1 diabetes [15]. The authors decided to remove all the Common Humanity items altogether.

This study has several limitations. First, parents who participated in this study were recruited to fill out the unpaid online questionnaire. This way, the participation in this study may be limited to parents who have more time, willingness, and are familiar with the online platform. Second, our sample was dominated by mothers, bachelor’s graduates, and Javanese. These factors may impact the ability to generalize the result of the present study. Therefore, it can be valuable to include more fathers and participants with various educational backgrounds and ethnicities in the research.

P-SCS is a reliable and valid measurement to assess self-compassion in Indonesian parents. This measurement provides the parenting context not specifically assessed in the original SCS. The reliability, internal consistency, and validity measures of the P-SCS meet the expected value.

Future studies to assess the validity of the P-SCS should involve more ethnically diverse participants. A larger, more representative sample is recommended for evaluating the suitability of the P-SCS model with SCS and assessing potential differences in parenting self-compassion by various participants’ demographic characteristics, such as the parent’s gender and child age. It is also important to administer more measures to assess the construct validity of the P-SCS, such as parenting stress, self-efficacy, and depressive symptoms. Moreover, future research should consider the changes in parenting self-compassion over time when administered longitudinally (for example, as the child grows up and enters a new developmental stage).