Role of Self-Compassion on College Students’ Social Self-Evaluations and Affect Across Two Domains

Abstract

Students regularly engage in self-evaluations by comparing their performance to their peers’ performance (Strickhouser & Zell, 2015), which may influence their feelings about themselves and willingness to persist in college. Because failure is a natural component of learning, it is important to examine how to promote students’ development when performance is weak relative to their peers. The current study examined if self-compassion moderates the impact of social comparisons on students’ self-evaluations and affect across two domains relevant to college life: academic and interpersonal competence. Students (N = 245) completed a test of academic or interpersonal skills and then received either no feedback or false feedback reporting their performance as below average, average, or above average relative to peers. Participants then completed measures of self-evaluation, affect, and self-compassion. In the academic, F(4,103) = 9.20, p < .001, R2 = .26, p < .001, and interpersonal, F(4,105) = 14.88, p < .001, R2 = .36, p < .001, domains, participants reported more negative affect (but not self-evaluations) when performance was below average compared to average, above average, or when no feedback was given. Self-compassion was associated with more positive affect, βs > .25, p < .001, and less negative affect, βs < -.28, p < .001, in both domains, with the impact of self-compassion in the interpersonal domain particularly important for positive affect, F(7, 102) = 13.74, ΔR2 = .15, p < .001, when performance was average or above average. Increasing students’ self-compassion shows potential for shaping their reactions to social comparisons. Open Materials badge earned for transparent research practices. Materials are available at https://osf.io/cjuzf/