Assessing Compassion in Korean Population: Psychometric Properties of the Korean Version of Sussex-Oxford Compassion Scales
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A newly developed scale, the Sussex-Oxford Compassion Scale (SOCS) measures compassion for others and the self-based on an empirically supported five-elements definition of compassion: (a) recognizing suffering; (b) understanding the universality of suffering; (c) feeling for the person suffering; (d) tolerating uncomfortable feelings; and (e) motivation to act/acting to alleviate suffering. This study aimed to validate a Korean version of SOCS in a Korean adult sample. We administered the Sussex-Oxford Compassion Scale for Others (SOCS-O), the Sussex-Oxford Compassion Scale for the Self (SOCS-S), and other self-report measures of mindfulness, self-compassion, compassionate love, wellbeing, interpersonal reactivity, and mental health problems to analyze their psychometric properties. The findings support the five-factor hierarchical structure for the SOCS-O and SOCS-S, and as well as both scales' adequate psychometric properties of measurement invariance, interpretability, internal consistency, floor/ceiling effects, and convergent/discriminant validity.
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Findings support the five-factor hierarchical structure for Korean, Italian, and Swedish translations.
“Findings support the five-factor hierarchical structure for Korean [114], Italian [112], and Swedish [115] translations.”
From Validation of the compassionate engagement and action scales, compassion scale, and Sussex-Oxford compassion scales in a French-Canadian sample (2024) · cites this paper as [114]
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Muris, P., Bongers, K., Schenning, C., Meesters, C. M. G., & Otgaar, H. (2022) · Children · doi:10.3390/children9121930 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
“The results first of all showed that both measures of self-compassion were substantially correlated [29], and this appeared not only true for the total scores of both questionnaires but also for various (sub)scales.”
BackgroundMethodBrophy, K., Emery, M., MacDonald, C., Côté, C. I., & Körner, A. (2024) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0305776 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Sarling, A., Sundin, Ö., Åhs, F., Gu, J., & Jansson, B. (2024) · Nordic Psychology · doi:10.1080/19012276.2022.2156381 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
“The same pattern has also been shown for both compassion for others and self-compassion for the SOCS (Gu et al., 2019; Kim & Seo, 2021).”
BackgroundMethodResultInfluentialSansó, N., Escrivá‐Martínez, T., Flowers, S.-L. D., West, M. A., & Galiana, L. (2024) · Mindfulness · doi:10.1007/s12671-024-02400-y · Cited by 5 · see citing works
“O has been validated in different countries and languages, namely Swedish (Sarling et al., 2024), Dutch (de Krijger et al., 2022), Korean (Kim & Seo, 2021), Persian (Nikgoo et al., 2022), Slovak (Halamová & Kanovský, 2021), and Italian (Lucarini et al., 2022).”
InfluentialMeng, H., Wang, X., & Liu, H. (2023) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1110076 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
“Based on the above theoretical conceptualization and scale development, the SOCS-S has been shown to be a reliable and valid tool for measuring self-compassion in various countries and industries (Kim and Seo, 2021; de Krijger et al., 2022; Lucarini et al., 2022; Shreffler et al., 2022).”
MethodHussain, M., Keyte, R., Kalika, E., & Mantzios, M. (2025) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1545056 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
“” The scale has been validated in several languages, such as Korean, Swedish and German (Brophy et al., 2024; Kim and Seo, 2021; Sarling et al., 2024).”
Brophy, K., Emery, M., MacDonald, C., Bigelow, A., Ernst, J., Graser, J., Lyons, N., & Körner, A. (2025) · Mindfulness · doi:10.1007/s12671-025-02545-4 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
“The Slovak study did reproduce a five-factor hierarchical model for SOCS-O, as did the Korean, Italian, and French translations.”
Sussex-Oxford Compassion Scales (SOCS)
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“Compassion towards others has been shown to be positively related to trait mindfulness (Gu et al., 2020; Kim & Seo, 2021; Lucarini et al., 2023; Pommier et al., 2020), yet the relationship between compassion and specific FFMQ facets is still under-investigated.”
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“It involves an awareness and sensitivity to the pain experienced by oneself or others, accompanied by a commitment to reduce that suffering (Beaumont et al., 2016; Gilbert et al., 2017; Kim & Seo, 2021).”
Self-citationResearch Progress on Self-Compassion among Hospitalized Elderly Patients
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Sussex-Oxford Compassion Scales (SOCS)
Chems-Maarif, R., Gu, J., Cavanagh, K., Baer, R. A., Kuyken, W., Montero‐Marín, J., & Strauss, C. (2025) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-77644-2_135-1
Hannukkala, M. S., Grandell, R., & Levänen, S. (2025) · Mindfulness · doi:10.1007/s12671-025-02637-1
“In a Korean sample, the findings supported the expected five-factor hierarchical structure of both scales, as well as their adequate psychometric properties (measurement invariance, interpretability, internal consistency, floor/ ceiling effects, and convergent validity; Kim & Seo, 2021).”
Chio, F. H. N., Yu, B. C. L., Fu, Y., Chio, J. H. M., & Mak, W. W. S. (2026) · British Journal of Psychology · doi:10.1111/bjop.70102
- Authors
- Kim, J., & Seo, J.-W.
- Affiliations
- Jeonbuk National University (KR)
- Corresponding author
- Seo, Jang-Won
- Venue
- Frontiers in Psychology
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2021-10-11
- Volume
- 12
- Pages
- 744481-744481
- ISSN
- 1664-1078 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC8544640
- OpenAlex
- W3205186795
- Cited by
- 15
- References
- 66
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 2
- FWCI
- 1.02
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Frontiers in Psychology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Jeonbuk National University (4199990714213)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Psychometric Methodologies and Testing
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction
- Keywords
- compassion, Korean adaptation, psychometric validation, self-compassion, compassion for others, measurement invariance, convergent and discriminant validity, Korean adults
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