Self-compassion in sport: a scoping review

Sport is a domain that is rife with loss, failures, and disappointment. Self-compassion – the recognition of one’s own suffering and a desire to alleviate it – offers protection against maladaptive psychological experiences in sport. The purpose of this scoping review was to update and expand the results of the review by Röthlin and colleagues (2019. Go soft or go home? A scoping review of empirical studies on the role of self-compassion in the competitive sport setting. Current Issues in Sport Science, 4, Article 013. https: //doi. org/10. 15203/CISS₂019. 013), and to identify new themes to help guide future research. Sixty-nine publications were identified using a variety of search strategies. Quantitative research (62. 3%) and cross-sectional designs (83. 3%) were most common, and most research was conducted by researchers residing in Westernized countries (81. 2%). The majority of study participants (n = 10, 025) were collegiate athletes (42. 1%), and female/women sport participants were sampled slightly more frequently (52. 4%). Researchers often investigated sex- or gender-based and competition level differences in self-compassion scores. Other common areas of research focus included well-being, mindfulness, striving for excellence, overcoming setbacks, negative thoughts and emotions, and self-criticism. New research areas that were identified included a need for theory, additional efforts towards conceptualization and measurement, acknowledgement of participant selection bias, integrating intersectionality, the relationship between self-compassion and performance, the distinctiveness between self-compassion and mindfulness, and future directions for interventions.