Translation and Factorial Validation of the Self-Compassion Scale for Adolescents in a German Community Sample

Self-compassion, which refers to being kind and understanding toward oneself when suffering or experiencing personal inadequacies, is widely seen as a protective factor against mental health problems in adolescents and adults. To date, most research is conducted on adults using the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS), although adolescence is seen as a challenging period in life. Self-compassion research has only recently started to focus on childhood and adolescence. We aimed to translate the English version of the SCS for adolescents into German, test its psychometric properties, and examine potential gender differences more closely. We used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to find the best-fitting model out of a two, three, and six-factorial solution. The sample consisted of 255 adolescents, 10 to 19 years old, from a community sample. The study was designed as an online survey. We found the six-factorial solution to best fit our data. Males were significantly more self-compassionate than females. The Self-Compassion Scale – Children and Adolescents (SCS-CA) and its subscales showed good internal consistency as well as good content, criterion, and construct validity with measures of mindfulness, quality of life, and psychopathology. We discuss implications of these findings for a better understanding of adolescent well-being and mental health, as well as potential benefits of a future application of this measure. Overall, our findings suggest that the developed questionnaire is an economical, valid, and reliable measure to assess self-compassion in German adolescents. Trial registration: From ClinicalTrials.gov, Identifier: NCT04034576 (registered 07/17/19). Highlights Translation and validation of the SCS for adolescents from English to German with 10- to 19-year-olds from a community sample. CFA indicates that a six-factorial solution for SCS-CA in adolescents best fits the data. Good psychometric properties and replication of the link of self-compassion, mindfulness, and psychopathology. Male adolescents were significantly more self-compassionate than females. One step in better understanding adolescent well-being, mental health, and potential resilience factors.