September 26, 2025

Cultural Examination of the Self-Compassion Scale in South Korean Community-Based Adults

Key Points

A 4-factor model supports the cultural relevance of self-compassion in South Korea, aligning with Northeast Asian findings.
The confirmatory factor analysis confirmed that three factors pertain to compassionate self-responding, enhancing the understanding of self-compassion.
This research emphasizes the need for culturally specific measures concerning self-compassion, distinguishing it from Western interpretations.
The results indicate that self-compassion measurement must incorporate cultural contexts to ensure validity and reliability across populations.

Abstract

Despite its widespread therapeutic use, the evaluation of self-compassion remains controversial. The Self-Compassion Scale (SCS) was proposed with three components on a bipolar continuum, ranging from compassionate self-responding (CS), including self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness, to uncompassionate self-responding (UCS), including self-judgment, isolation, and over-identification. However, recent evidence conflicts with this 6-factor structure, particularly when considering cultural differences. We tested the cultural validity of the SCS in a South Korean sample by comparing 12 models of different factor structures using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM). The results support a 4-factor ESEM model (three CS factors and one UCS factor; all items were negatively valenced), consistent with previous findings in Northeast Asian populations. Incremental and criterion validity were confirmed. These findings suggest that the operationalization of self-compassion and its measurement should be culturally contextualized.

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