The DOI matches its Crossref record; 41 of the 41 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Self-Compassion and Psychological Well-being
Abstract
Self-compassion involves being touched by and open to one’s own suffering, not avoiding or disconnecting from it, generating the desire to alleviate one’s suffering and to heal oneself with kindness. Self-compassion also involves offering nonjudgmental understanding to one’s pain, inadequacies, and failures, so that one’s experience is seen as part of the larger human experience. This chapter will provide an overview of theory and research on self-compassion and its link to psychological well-being, which is the goal of clinical practice. It will discuss what self-compassion is and what it is not (e.g., a form of weakness, selfishness, etc.), and provide empirical evidence to support these distinctions. Finally, it will discuss methods that have been developed to teach individuals how to be more self-compassionate in their daily lives, some clinical implications of self-compassion training, and future directions for research.
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“The increased positive affect and decreased negative affect observed in our research following the 8-week MSC training are also in line with results from other studies in which the MSC programme was used (Neff and Germer, 2017; Yela et al., 2020a; Yela et al., 2022).”
From Long-term effectiveness of the Mindful Self-Compassion programme compared to a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction intervention: a quasi-randomised controlled trial involving regular mindfulness practice for 1 year (2025) · cites this paper as Neff and Germer, 2017
In the citing paper
“Opierając się na wcześniejszych badaniach, które udokumentowały istotne korelacje (od małych/umiarkowanych do dużych) między współczuciem dla siebie i cechą uważności oraz między współczuciem dla siebie a wskaźnikami zdrowia psychicznego idobrostanu [28, 35, 36]”
From The Polish adaptation of the Self-Compassion Scale Short Form (2024) · cites this paper as [35]
Citations
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“For instance, self-compassion interventions have been found to increase optimism, happiness, life satisfaction, self-efficacy and body appreciation, to decrease rumination, depression, anxiety, stress and body shame (Albertson et al., 2014; Neff & Germer, 2013; Shapira & Mongrain, 2010; Smeets et al., 2014), and to po…”
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Neff, K. D., Tóth-Király, I., Yarnell, L. M., Arimitsu, K., Castilho, P., Ghorbani, N., Guo, H. X., Hirsch, J. K., Hupfeld, J., Hutz, C. S., et al. (2019) · Psychological Assessment · doi:10.1037/pas0000629 · Cited by 397
Self-compassion and Psychological Distress in Adolescents—a Meta-analysis
Marsh, I. C., Chan, S. W. Y., & MacBeth, A. (2018) · Mindfulness · doi:10.1007/s12671-017-0850-7 · Cited by 465
“The concept of self-compassion is rooted in Buddhist philosophy (where self-compassion is considered to be identical to compassion towards others, merely turned inward to the self (Neff 2004).”
BackgroundPositive psychology in a pandemic: buffering, bolstering, and building mental health
Waters, L., Algoe, S. B., Dutton, J., Emmons, R., Fredrickson, B. L., Heaphy, E., Moskowitz, J. T., Neff, K., Niemiec, R., Pury, C., et al. (2022) · The Journal of Positive Psychology · doi:10.1080/17439760.2021.1871945 · Cited by 377
“This friendly and benevolent attitude strengthens our ability to cope with difficulties and find their silver linings, helping to explain why self-compassionate people are happier, more optimistic, and satisfied with their lives than those who give themselves the cold shoulder (Neff & Germer, 2017).”
BackgroundSelf-citationMuris, P., & Otgaar, H. (2020) · Mindfulness · doi:10.1007/s12671-020-01363-0 · Cited by 162
A meta-analysis of the relation between self-compassion and self-efficacy
Liao, K. Y.-H., Stead, G. B., & Liao, C.-Y. (2021) · Mindfulness · doi:10.1007/s12671-021-01626-4 · Cited by 109
Metadata
- Authors
- Neff, K., & Germer, C.
- Affiliations
- The University of Texas at Austin (US)
- Harvard University (US)
- ORCID
- Neff, Kristin
- Venue
- Oxford Handbooks Online
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Published
- 2017-10-05
- OpenAlex
- W2775655995
- Cited by
- 215
- References
- 41
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 17 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 26 · 2022: 24 · 2021: 42 · 2020: 28 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 12
- FWCI
- 23.52
- Type
- book
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Oxford University Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction
- Social Sciences › Health › Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology
- Keywords
- self-compassion, psychological well-being, self-compassion training, suffering, self-kindness
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