Psychometric properties of Iranian version of self-compassion scale (short form)

With appearance of third wave of cognitive-behavioral treatments that is mainly based on mindfulness and acceptance, compassion and self-compassion have been also considered and studied. Construction of self-compassion was defined by Kristin Neff (2003), for the first time and introduced some measures for it. Current study was done in order to determine factor structure, validity, reliability of short form of self-compassion and introduce the suitable measure for clinical practice and research to experts and researchers of psychological health.
In order to study psychometric properties and analysis of factor structure of this scale, 210 individuals from Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences in Tehran were chosen in available sampling procedure. The participants were also asked to complete the scales of external shame, negative affect and perfectionism. Liserl-8 and spss-18 were used for analyzing data. Cronbach's Alpha, Correlation Coefficient and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were calculated.
The three-factor structure of external shame scale was supported by the results of confirmatory factor analysis in Iranian sample (RMSEA=0.08,NFI=0.84,CFI=0.89). Self-compassion scale had a negative and meaningful correlation with perfectionism (0.33), negative affect (0.38) and external shame (0.21). Also, Cornbrach’s Alpha coefficient, for the whole of scale and factors of self-kindness, self-judgment, common humanity, isolation and mindfulness, over-identification were gained 0.79, 0.68, 0.71 and 0.86 respectively.
The three-factor structure of short form of self-compassion scale demonstrated acceptable psychometric properties among student of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences. In studies in which only the total scores of self-compassion are required, the short form can be used. Also, the studies in which large samples are used, the number of questionnaires is too many or the treatment situations in which frequent revisions of self-compassion are needed, the usage of the short form can be useful.