Effects of Self-Compassion Training on Work-Related Well-Being: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Self-compassion, sharing some commonalities with positive psychology 2.0 approaches, is associated with better mental health outcomes in diverse populations, including workers. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there is heightened awareness of the importance of self-care for fostering mental health at work. However, evidence regarding the applications of self-compassion interventions in work-related contexts has not been systematically reviewed to date. Therefore, this systematic review aimed to synthesize and evaluate the utility of self-compassion interventions targeting work-related well-being, as well as assess the methodological quality of relevant studies. Eligible articles were identified from research databases including ProQuest, PsycINFO, Science Direct, and Google Scholar. The quality of non-randomized trials and randomized controlled trials was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale and the Quality Assessment Table, respectively. The literature search yielded 3,387 titles from which ten studies met the inclusion criteria. All ten studies reported promising effects of self-compassion training for work-related well-being. The methodological quality of these studies was medium. All ten studies recruited workers in a caring field and were mostly conducted in Western countries. The Self-Compassion Scale or its short-form was used in almost all instances. Findings indicate that self-compassion training can improve self-compassion and other work-related well-being outcomes in working populations. However, in general, there is need for greater methodological quality in work-related self-compassion intervention studies to advance understanding regarding the applications and limitations of this technique in work contexts. Furthermore, future studies should focus on a broader range of employee groups, including non-caring professions as well as individuals working in non-Western countries.

Cultivating Compassion and Reducing Stress and Mental Ill-Health in Employees—A Randomized Controlled Study

“…Importantly, the results showed that only the compassion intervention group demonstrated a significant and moderate increase in self-compassion. These results align with previous studies implying selfcompassion is a coping strategy that can be developed through training (Neff and Germer, 2013;Kirby et al, 2017;Ferrari et al, 2019;Craig et al, 2020;Kotera and Van Gordon, 2021). Thus, when an individual possesses the knowledge and training regarding how to quickly reduce a physiologically stressful response to an emotionally challenging experience, through establishing compassion and confidence within themselves, acting on that knowledge builds resilience to the condition called "empathy distress, " which has been shown to lead to reduced motivation and engagement as well as increased sickleave (Figley, 1995).…”

“…Considering the negative effects of mental health problems in the workplace, both regarding individual suffering and organizational costs, effective interventions are indeed needed. Because previous studies on compassion interventions have mainly involved healthcare professionals or employees working in caring-focused environments, evaluating the impacts of compassion training in other work contexts is important (Kotera and Van Gordon, 2021). The findings of the present intervention study contribute to existing knowledge by focusing on professionals in both a public service agency and a private company in the financial sector.…”

Self-Compassion in Irish Social Work Students: Relationships between Resilience, Engagement and Motivation

“…Understanding the relationship between self-compassion and other constructs is important in developing varied approaches for cultivating self-compassion, as self-compassion interventions remain to be further developed [13]. Existing interventions aimed at increasing levels of self-compassion, for example, the Mindfulness Self-Compassion programme [5], rely heavily on meditative techniques.…”

An individual perspective on psychological safety: The role of basic need satisfaction and self-compassion

“…In general, literature has shown that self-compassion is positively associated with emotional well-being ( Neff et al, 2007 ; Zessin et al, 2015 ), while negatively associated with the experience of life stress and negative affect ( Ying and Han, 2009 ; Diedrich et al, 2014 ; Zhang et al, 2016 ). A systematic review shows that self-compassion training has a positive effect on work-related well-being ( Kotera and Van Gordon, 2021 ). Moreover self-compassion has been shown to have a positive relation with basic needs satisfaction ( Ghorbani et al, 2012 ).…”