Are self-compassionate writers more feedback literate? Exploring undergraduates’ perceptions of feedback constructiveness

Upon receiving constructive feedback, students may experience unpleasant emotions from critical comments about their writing or the realization that their work is unfinished. Few studies have focused on how learners are able to manage such emotions, one aspect of feedback literacy. Regulating these emotions may involve practicing self-kindness and avoiding self-judgment, two subcomponents of self-compassion. Self-compassionate individuals may move past any feelings of failure and direct their attention to what needs improvement. The question addressed was whether undergraduates’ level of self-compassion would affect their perceptions of the constructiveness of researcher-created feedback statements. At a U.S. southwest university, students (N = 508) rated the constructiveness of 56 statements that had been created to represent different levels of constructiveness in feedback to a fictitious writing assignment. Results indicated that students’ self-kindness positively predicted feedback constructiveness, whereas self-judgment was a negative predictor. Additionally, students higher in self-compassion (high in self-kindness in one analysis and those low in self-judgment in a second) rated the least constructive statements as more constructive than did students low in self-compassion. We end with implications for feedback literacy and writing assessment research and for application of self-compassion in the context of feedback on writing. •Self-compassion is a way to regulate emotions when receiving feedback on writing.•Self-kindness was a positive predictor of feedback constructiveness.•Self-judgment was a negative predictor of feedback constructiveness.•Writers with high self-kindness perceived unhelpful feedback as constructive.•Writers with high self-judgment perceived unhelpful feedback as unconstructive.