Examining the Factors of Self-Compassion Scale with Canonical Commonality Analysis: Syrian Sample

Abstract

Purpose of Study: The purpose of this study is to examine the psychological structure of self-compassion and to determine the relationship between the sub-dimensions (or factors) of the self-compassion-scale and the contribution of each factor to the construct. Although the self-compassion scale has been commonly used in the area of psychology, the number of the studies that examine the relationship between the factors (or sub-dimensions) of self-compassion is limited. The contribution of this study is assumed to be substantial since it examines the relationship between the several factors of self-compassion and determines the unique and common contribution of each factor to the self-compassion construct. Method: This study employed a relational survey method. A purposive sampling technique was used in order to determine the study group which consisted of 593 university students from Damascus University, Syria. Findings and Results: According to canonical correlation analysis mindfulness was the most important among the positive factors set, while over-identified was the most important among the negative factors set. On the other hand, common variance of common-humanity and self-kindness was quite large, indicating multicollinearity between these two factors. Additionally, the contribution of common humanity was negligibly small; therefore, it can be excluded from the model with a small sacrifice in explained variance. Conclusions and Recommendations: Although the results of this study suggest the exclusion the common-humanity factor from the self-compassion structure, more research should be conducted to support this finding both theoretically and empirically. Also, additional statistical methods should be used to explore the complex relationship between factors of self-compassion within different samples. (C) 2017 Ani Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved