Calver, Patricia M. (2010) The Influence of Self-Compassion and Early Memories of Warmth and Safeness on Resilience. Honours thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
Abstract
A major goal of the positive psychology movement has been to understand the factors that are important in the development of psychological health, happiness and resilience in the face of adversity. While recent published research has identified that both self-compassion and early memories of warmth and safeness may individually contribute to resilience, to date no studies have examined how these constructs interact to influence resilience. Therefore the present study aimed to investigate the influence of the dimensions of self-compassion as measured by the Self-Kindness, Self-Judgement, Common Humanity, Isolation, Mindfulness and Over-Identification subscales of the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS, Neff, 2003a), and early memories of warmth and safeness as measured on the Early Memories of Warmth and Safeness Scale (EMWSS, Richter, Gilbert, & McEwan, 2009) on resilience as measured on the 10-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC 10, Campbell-Sills & Stein, 2007). As most of the studies using these scales were conducted using student populations, it was decided to draw the participants in this study from a convenience community sample of Australian adults. Two hundred and thirty-six participants (142 males and 154 females) were included in this study. It was hypothesised that higher levels of self-compassion and early memories of warmth and safeness would be associated with higher levels of resilience. The results of a hierarchical regression controlling for age and gender identified that increased self-compassion and early memories of warmth and safeness were associated with increased resilience. The six subscales of the self-compassion scale accounted for a 44.6% (p < .001) increase in the variance of resilience, which represented a large effect size of f² = .98. Early memories of warmth and safeness accounted for a 9.6% (p < .001) increase in the variance of resilience which represented a small effect size of f² = .11.
Additionally, early memories of warmth and safeness and three of the six subscales of the Self-Compassion Scale–Mindfulness, Over-Identification, and Isolation– were predictive of resilience. A further exploratory analysis of meditational effect of mindfulness on the relationship between early memories of warmth and safeness and resilience found mindfulness to partially mediate this relationship. These findings confirm results from previous research suggesting that therapies that develop mindfulness and self-compassion are effective in improving psychological health and well-being. Such findings have important implications for high school programs to build resilience. Rather than using existing self-esteem enhancement programs which have been criticised for being associated with increased social competition and narcissism, training in self-compassion and mindfulness may be a healthier approach to enhancing mental health and fostering resilience in adolescents. The development and assessment of school based programs to increase self-compassion and mindfulness is an exciting new direction for future research.
|
Statistics for this ePrint Item |
| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Honours) |
|---|---|
| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Historic - Faculty of Sciences - Department of Psychology (Up to 30 Jun 2013) |
| Supervisors: | Murray Thompson |
| Qualification: | Bachelor of Science (Honours) |
| Date Deposited: | 14 Oct 2025 03:31 |
| Last Modified: | 14 Oct 2025 03:31 |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | self-compassion ; mindfulness ; early memories of warmth and safeness ; resilience in adolescents ; resilience in adults |
| Fields of Research (2008): | 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 1799 Other Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 179999 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified |
| Fields of Research (2020): | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5299 Other psychology > 529999 Other psychology not elsewhere classified |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/52192 |
Actions (login required)
 |
Archive Repository Staff Only |
