Perceptions of Self-compassion in Undergraduate Women: A Photo Elicitation Study

Self-compassion is broadly defined by researchers as compassion directed toward oneself, encompassing self-love, common humanity, and mindfulness. However, beyond specific groups such as adolescents, individuals with anxiety and depression, and female exercisers, how the general public defines and perceives self-compassion remains underexplored. It is important to understand how other individuals define and experience self-compassion so that interventions targeted toward increasing self-compassion are meaningful for participants.

The purpose of the present study was to examine perceptions of self-compassion among female university students aged 18 to 24.

Semi-structured interviews using photo-elicitation were conducted with nine women. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using reflective thematic analysis.

Participants had difficulty defining self compassion. Three themes were generated from the data, including: 1) describing self-compassion as tricky, 2) understanding the self in self-compassion, and 3) self-compassion as a tool.

Participants had difficulty defining self-compassion and often referred to examples of compassion directed towards and received from others to describe the concept. Participants described ways in which self-compassion was adaptive and how practicing self-compassion helped them overcome personal challenges. These findings highlight the importance of psychoeducation to continue to deconstruct misconceptions about self-compassion, and to address conceptual gaps between how self-compassion is defined in the literature and how it is understood by general populations.

Given the difficulty of defining self-compassion, researchers should focus on knowledge translation strategies to help foster self-compassion in young women.