A new study from the University of Toronto Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education (KPE) and the Université de Montréal department of social and preventive medicine set out to investigate factors associated with low self-compassion in young adults.
Drawing on data from the ongoing Nicotine Dependence in Teens (NDIT) study, the researchers explored a wide range of potential influences on low self-compassion, which they defined as the ability to treat oneself with kindness and understanding in challenging times.
“We determined that 16 per cent of the 682 NDIT study participants reported low self-compassion,” says Maryam Marashi, a PhD candidate in KPE and one of the authors of the study, recently published in the Canadian Journal of Public Health.
Some of the key factors that increased the likelihood of low self-compassion in young adults included the female sex; psychological factors, including higher depressive symptoms, higher daily stress and low self-esteem; lifestyle behaviors, including poor sleep quality and frequent overeating; more frequent body-related emotions, including shame, guilt, envy and embarrassment; negative social influences, including negative comments about weight; and health indicators, including poor self-rated health and diagnoses of mood or anxiety disorders.
“These findings suggest that self-compassion is influenced by a combination of individual, social, and health-related factors,” says Marashi, whose research into body image and exercise experiences is supervised by Professor Catherine Sabiston, Canada Research Chair in Physical Activity and Psychosocial Wellbeing and director of KPE’s Mental Health and Physical Activity Research Centre (MPARC), who also contributed to the study.
“The results may be useful to practitioners, mental health professionals and public health policymakers when designing targeted interventions for young adults to improve their mental and emotional well-being, particularly for groups at higher risk such as women or those experiencing high levels of stress, mental health challenges or negative body-related emotions.”
Next up, the researchers intend to study self-compassion in other demographics and life stages to generalize findings beyond young adults, and develop and test interventions tailored to individual needs, focused on reducing barriers to self-compassion.