Factorial Structure and Construct Validity of an Iranian Version of the Fear of Compassion Scale: A Study in Nurses

Fear of compassion is one of the psychological variables in the nursing profession that can be a barrier to providing appropriate services to patients. This research was done in order to assess psychometric properties, construct validity, reliability of fear of compassion scales and to introduce suitable measures for experts and researchers in the healthcare‑related fields.

In this study, 216 nurses (117 males and 99 females) were chosen with a multistage cluster sampling method between June 2016 and Feb 2017. Lisrel‑8 and SSPS‑18 were used for data analysis. The construct validity of the fear of compassion scales was assessed using confirmatory factor analysis. To assess the divergent and convergent validity of the fear of compassion scales, the compassion for others, depression, anxiety, stress, burnout, and cognitive emotion regulation questionnaires were used.

The results of confirmatory factor analysis showed that the single‑factor model of fear of compassion scales (for others, from others, and for self) is a better fit to the data. Furthermore, these three scales had a positive and significant correlation with anxiety, depression, stress, burnout, and unhealthy cognitive‑emotion regulation strategies, and negative and significant correlation with compassion for others and healthy cognitive‑emotion regulation strategies. In addition, the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for fear of expressing compassion to others was 0.85, and 0.95 and 0.96 for fear of responding to compassion from others and fear of self‑compassion, respectively.

This study provides additional evidence for the psychometric properties of fear of compassion scales in Iranian nurses.