A worthy self is a caring self: Examining the developmental relations among self-esteem and self-compassion in adolescents.

OBJECTIVE: Self-compassion has been framed as a healthy alternative to self-esteem, as it is non-evaluative. However rather than being alternatives, it may be that the two constructs develop in a mutually-reinforcing way. The present study tested this possibility among adolescents.

METHOD: A large adolescent sample (N = 2,809; 49.8% female) reported levels of trait self-esteem and self-compassion annually for four years. Auto-regressive cross-lagged structural equation models were used to estimate the reciprocal longitudinal relations between the two constructs.

RESULTS: Self-esteem consistently predicted changes in self-compassion across the four years of the study, but not vice versa.

CONCLUSION: Self-esteem appears to be an important antecedent of the development of self-compassion, perhaps because the capacity to extend compassion toward the self depends on one's appraisals of worthiness. These findings add important insights to our theoretical understanding of the development of self-compassion. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.