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In a new commentary in Mindfulness , Neff once again tried to defend the use of the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS) total score by arguing that compassionate and uncompassionate self-responding (CS and UCS) are part of a bipolar continuum. In this brief reaction, we refute this notion and also clarify how the continued use of the SCS total score muddies the water of research on self-compassion as a protective variable. We also illustrate how the SCS—by separating CS and UCS—can provide more valid and valuable information on protection and vulnerability within the context of psychopathology and stress than just relying on the total score of the SCS.

The self-conscious emotions of guilt, shame, and pride typically occur when people evaluate their own self through the eyes of another person. This article will first of all discuss the nature and function of self-conscious emotions, and describe their developmental course in children and adolescents. Then, a number of variables are discussed that are thought to increase young people’s proneness to experience self-conscious emotions. Following this, the empirical evidence on the relationships between guilt, shame, and pride and various types of psychopathology in children and adolescents will be summarized. A model is presented to explain why these self-conscious emotions are associated with a diversity of psychopathological outcomes. Finally, recommendations for clinical practice are made in terms of assessment and interventions targeting the origins and sequelae of self-conscious emotions.

In current classification systems, selective mutism (SM) is included in the broad anxiety disorders category. Indeed, there is abundant evidence showing that anxiety, and social anxiety in particular, is a prominent feature of SM. In this article, we point out that autism spectrum problems in addition to anxiety problems are sometimes also implicated in SM. To build our case, we summarize evidence showing that SM, social anxiety disorder (SAD), and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are allied clinical conditions and share communalities in the realm of social difficulties. Following this, we address the role of a prototypical class of ASD symptoms, restricted and repetitive behaviors and interests (RRBIs), which are hypothesized to play a special role in the preservation and exacerbation of social difficulties. We then substantiate our point that SM is sometimes more than an anxiety disorder by addressing its special link with ASD in more detail. Finally, we close by noting that the possible involvement of ASD in SM has a number of consequences for clinical practice with regard to its classification, assessment, and treatment of children with SM and highlight a number of directions for future research.

Selective mutism (SM) is a relatively rare childhood disorder characterized by a consistent failure to speak in specific settings (e.g., school, social situations) despite speaking normally in other settings (e.g., at home). The latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) lists SM among the anxiety disorders. This makes sense as the current review of the literature confirms that anxiety is a prominent symptom in many children suffering from this condition. Further, research on the etiology and treatment of SM also corroborates the conceptualization of SM as an anxiety disorder. At the same time, critical points can be raised regarding the classification of SM as an anxiety disorder. We explore a number of such issues in this review. Recommendations for dealing with this diagnostic conundrum are made for psychologists, psychiatrists, and other mental health workers who face children with SM in clinical practice, and directions for future research are highlighted.

This study examined relationships among self-compassion, self-esteem, and self-efficacy and symptoms of anxiety disorders and depression in a sample of 132 non-clinical adolescents aged 12–17 years. The results first of all indicated that the Shortened Self-Compassion Scale for Adolescents was reliable (i.e., all Cronbach’s alphas were >.70) and valid in terms of both construct (as demonstrated by a principal components analysis which revealed the hypothesized three-factor structure) and concurrent validity (i.e., as shown by means of positive correlations with self-esteem and self-efficacy). Further, the expected negative correlations were found between self-compassion and anxiety and depression, indicating that higher levels of this self-related construct are associated with lower symptom levels, and vice versa. Of the three components of self-compassion, mindfulness appeared most convincingly related to symptoms of anxiety and depression. Finally, when controlling for other self-related constructs, self-compassion no longer accounted for a significant proportion in the variance of symptom levels. In contrast, self-esteem (depression) and in particular self-efficacy (anxiety and depression) did show unique explanatory power.

To demonstrate that the positive and negative subscales of Self-Compassion Scale (SCS) are very different in nature, we conducted a series of face validity checks on the items of this questionnaire among psychologists and psychology students (Study 1). Furthermore, a survey was administered to a convenience sample of non-clinical adolescents to examine the relations between various SCS subscales and symptoms of anxiety and depression as well as coping styles (Study 2). The results of the face validity checks revealed that the positive subscales seem to be well in line with the protective nature of self-compassion as they were mainly associated with cognitive coping and healthy functioning, whereas the negative subscales were chiefly associated with psychopathological symptoms and mental illness. The survey data demonstrated that the positive SCS subscales were positively correlated with adaptive coping (r’s between .22 and .50) and negatively correlated with symptoms of anxiety and depression (r’s between −.19 and −.53), while the negative subscales were positively correlated with symptoms (r’s between .49 and .61) and maladaptive coping strategies such as passive reacting (r’s between .53 and .56). Additional analyses indicated the negative subscales of the SCS accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in symptoms, whereas the unique contribution of the positive SCS subscales was fairly marginal. We caution to employ the total SCS score that includes the reversed negative subscales as such a procedure clearly inflates the relation between self-compassion and psychopathology.

[...]even in her more recent papers, she still advocates that the construct basically contains three positive components that are dimensional in nature. Unsurprisingly, the overall factor analysis performed on all 26 items of the SCS convincingly showed that a six-correlated-factor model yielded the best fit for the data, and it should be noted that most subsequent studies have shown that this structure of six related components provides the most optimal factor solution for the scale (Arimitsu 2014; Azizi et al. 2013; Castilho et al. 2015; Chen et al. 2011; Garcia-Campayo et al. 2014; Hupfield and Ruffieux 2011; Lee and Lee 2010; Mantzios et al. 2015; Petrocchi et al. 2014; Williams et al. 2014). In an attempt to validate the use of the total score of the SCS, Neff (2016) proposed the bi-factor model (Holzinger and Swineford 1937) as an alternative method for looking at the structure of the scale, and even presented data from a recent study to support this idea (Neff et al., Examining the factor structure of the Self-Compassion Scale in five distinct populations, submitted). In this study, confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to test the bi-factor model as well as the more conventional models (i.e., the six-correlated-factor model and the hierarchical higher-order six-factor model) for the structure of the SCS in five distinct non-clinical and clinical samples (Neff et al., Examining the factor structure of the Self-Compassion Scale in five distinct populations, submitted).

[...]a meta-analysis by Muris and Petrocchi (2016) pointed out that the compassionate characteristics as measured with the SCS are negatively correlated with psychopathological symptoms, which is consistent with their hypothesized protective nature. [...]the uncompassionate features are positively linked to symptoms, indicating that they rather reflect increased vulnerability to mental health problems. [...]there is evidence showing that scores on uncompassionate components as measured by the SCS generally account for a larger percentage of explained variance in psychopathological symptoms than scores on the compassionate characteristics (Muris 2016; Muris et al. in press, Study 2). [...]research using more sophisticated statistical methods (such as bi-factor confirmatory factor analysis or exploratory structural equation modeling) has indicated that structural models of the SCS produce an even better fit when compassionate and uncompassionate self-responding are included as separate factors (e.g., Brenner et al. 2017; Coroiu et al. 2018; Neff et al. 2018). In the partial correlation analyses—which were conducted via http://vassarstats.net—we controlled for the overlap between SCS compassionate and SCS reduced uncompassionate responding (which was set to r = .70 as for the total sample 1 in Neff et al.’s study) Neff et al.’s analysis: zero-order correlations Re-analysis: partial correlations Total SCS SCS Compassionate self-responding SCS Reduced uncompassionate self-responding SCS Compassionate self-responding SCS Reduced uncompassionate self-responding Depression − .69* − .56* − .71* − .13 − .54* Anxiety − .47* − .33* − .54* .08 − .46* Stress − .65* − .48* − .71* .03 − .60* Self-criticism − .80* − .65* − .81* − .20 − .65* Rumination − .60* − .38* − .71* .23 − .67* Thought suppression − .58* − .42* − .64* .05 − .53* Worry − .74* − .59* − .76* − .13 − .60* Negative affect − .51* − .37* − .56* .04 − .45* SCS Self-Compassion Scale *p < .001 In Neff et al.’s (in press) paper, zero-order correlations were calculated between compassionate and uncompassionate self-responding and several indices of psychopathology.

Self-compassion, which refers to the tendency of being kind and understanding to oneself when confronted with personal failings and difficulties, is increasingly investigated as a protective factor within the context of mental health problems. In this invited paper, I will briefly introduce the concept of self-compassion and give an overview of the research that has examined its relationship with psychopathology in youth. Then I will make my critical point regarding the assessment of self-compassion: the scales that are currently used for measuring this construct include a large number of reversely scored, negative items that measure the precise opposite of having compassion with oneself. I present evidence (partly on the basis of own data) that these negative items do not reflect the true protective nature of self-compassion and tend to inflate the relation with psychopathology. My recommendation is to remove the negative items from the scales and to assess self-compassion by means of a set of items that truly reflect its protective nature.

Objectives Falsification is regarded as a cornerstone of science. Anomalous data—even when highly credible—do not always lead to an adjustment of theory. In this paper, we discuss reasons for why current theories are not modified despite a corpus of work falsifying (parts of) the theory, using the case of self-compassion as an example. During more than 15 years, this psychological construct has been heralded as a protective factor against stress and emotional adversity. Methods A search in the Web of Science database using [SELF-COMPASSION in title] as the search term was conducted and found empirical papers were critically evaluated. Results Good evidence abounds indicating that the theoretical definition of self-compassion is limited and that as a consequence its proper assessment with the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS) is obscured as the measure is contaminated by psychopathological characteristics. Surprisingly, few researchers take these critical notes into account when conducting and reporting new studies on this topic. We argue that this might be due to all kinds of (conscious and unconscious) tendencies and cognitive biases of researchers and clinicians. Conclusion Research lines are not always guided by solid data but strongly determined by social factors. We close by providing a recommendation for researchers regarding the assessment of self-compassion including the continued use of the SCS.