Measuring compassion toward others: Dimensionality of the compassion scale in community adolescents and in adolescents with behavioral disorders.

Abstract

Compassion toward others has been defined as the sensitivity to the suffering of others with the genuine commitment to relieve/prevent it. The Compassion Scale (CS) measures this construct and despite its relevance during adolescence, studies have been mostly conducted with adults. This study investigated the psychometric properties of the Compassion Scale-Adolescents (CS-A) in community adolescents (n = 658; 409 girls) and in boys with behavioral disorders (n = 183), from 14 to 18 years old. Results showed the adequacy of a hierarchical-CFA measurement model, with a general score of compassion and four specific factors (i.e., Kindness, Common Humanity, Mindfulness and Indifference). Measurement invariance was tested across samples. Community girls presented higher levels of compassion when compared to boys. Also, behaviorally disturbed boys presented decreased levels of compassion when compared to community boys. Evidence for reliability and construct validity is also provided. The CS-A allows future research between genders in community adolescents. Additionally, future research exploring compassion using the CS-A, between community boys and samples of behaviorally disturbed boys, is now possible.

Compassion as a Framework for Creating Individual and Group-Level Wellbeing in the Classroom: New Directions

“…This approach to understanding emotional experience has been examined comparing community adolescent males and young offenders (Sousa et al, 2022). Patterns of physiological activity in this study aligned with the three circles (reduced parasympathetic activity for red and blue, greater parasympathetic activity for green) in community teens.…”

“…Conversely, young offenders displayed decreases in parasympathetic nervous system activity when engaged in green circle activities, which the authors suggested mirror threat-like physiological responses to soothing. These findings provide important consideration for teachers, as students with behavioural difficulties or who display callous-emotional traits may not respond immediately favourably to compassion (Sousa et al, 2022).…”

Promoting a compassionate motivation in detained youth: A secondary analysis of a controlled trial with the PSYCHOPATHY.COMP program.

“…It is noteworthy that this was a severe sample considering their legal features (i.e., previous contacts with child protection and juvenile justice system services, risk of criminal recidivism) as well as their psychopathological profile (i.e., high comorbidity rates combining multiple psychopathological disorders). Nonnormative mean scores on the outcome measures were also found for treatment and control participants in comparison with community samples of youth (Cunha et al, 2016; Duarte et al, 2014; Miguel et al, 2019; Sousa et al, 2022; Vagos et al, 2016). These findings are in line with recent literature suggesting that forensic youth tend to present high levels of shame and disruptions on compassion-related variables (i.e., fears of compassion, social safeness, self-compassion, and compassion for others; Dávila Gómez et al, 2020; Gilbert, 2017; Gilbert & Basran, 2019; Morley, 2015; Ribeiro da Silva et al, 2015; Vagos et al, 2016).…”

“…Items (e.g., “When others feel sadness, I try to comfort them”) are rated on a 5-point scale (1 = almost never to 5 = almost always ); higher scores reflect higher levels of compassion for others. The CS presented good psychometric proprieties in the Portuguese version for adolescents (Sousa et al, 2022). In the current study, the total score of the CS showed a good internal consistency during the three assessment points; at baseline, the α was .88, the MIIC was .31, and the ω was .89.…”

“…The Compassion Scale (CS; Pommier et al, 2020; Portuguese version for adolescents by Sousa et al, 2022) is a 16-item self-report measure that assesses compassion for others, that is, experience kindness, a sense of common humanity, mindfulness, and lessened indifference toward the suffering of others. The CS comprises four subscales (Kindness, Common Humanity, Mindfulness, and Indifference), which can be grouped in a total score.…”