Self-Compassion Scale: Scoring and Interpretation Guide

About this resource

The Self-Compassion Scale was developed by Kristin Neff (2003) alongside her definition of self-compassion as three linked components, each with an opposite: self-kindness rather than self-judgement, a sense of common humanity rather than isolation, and mindfulness rather than over-identification with painful thoughts and feelings. The 26-item scale has six subscales, one for each component and one for each opposite, and yields a total self-compassion score in which the negative subscales are reverse-scored. It is the standard measure of self-compassion in research and is widely used to assess and track the self-critical, shame-prone clients for whom compassion focused therapy, mindful self-compassion and related approaches are indicated.

This resource is a scoring and interpretation guide. The SCS is copyrighted by its author, who makes it freely available for research and clinical use, but in keeping with our policy on copyrighted instruments we do not reproduce the items. The guide describes the format, the scoring including reversal and the calculation of the total, the six subscales and what they mean clinically, the descriptive ranges Neff offers for interpreting the total, the 12-item short form, the psychometric evidence you can rely on, and the ongoing debate about whether the total or the subscales should be interpreted. It also explains how to use the profile in session with a self-critical client without turning the measure into another occasion for self-judgement.

For clinicians working with self-criticism and shame, the most useful reading of the SCS is the contrast between the three positive and the three negative subscales. Many clients enter therapy with moderately high self-kindness and common humanity in principle but very high self-judgement, isolation and over-identification in practice, and it is the negative subscales that most clearly track the shift that compassion work aims to produce.

How to use it

1. Obtain the SCS or the SCS-Short Form from the author's official website. Administer at assessment and explain that the items ask how the person typically acts towards themselves in difficult times.
2. Score each item from 1 to 5 as marked. Reverse-score all items on the three negative subscales (self-judgement, isolation and over-identification) so that a high score always means more self-compassion. Calculate the mean of each subscale, then compute the total as the mean of the six subscale means (or, equivalently for most purposes, the mean of all 26 items after reversal).
3. Read the total against Neff's rough descriptive ranges, then look at the profile. Note the gap between the positive and negative subscales and identify which of the three negative subscales is highest, because that is usually where the client's self-relating is most painful.
4. Introduce the results to the client in the language of the three components: how they treat themselves when things go wrong, whether they feel alone in their struggles, and whether they can hold painful feelings without being swept away. Avoid framing a low score as a failing; a self-critical client will do that for you.
5. Repeat the SCS at the end of a block of compassion work and at the end of treatment. Expect the negative subscales to fall before the positive ones rise, and describe change to the client in those terms.

References

• Neff, K. D. (2003). The development and validation of a scale to measure self-compassion. Self and Identity, 2(3), 223-250.
• Neff, K. D. (2003). Self-compassion: An alternative conceptualization of a healthy attitude toward oneself. Self and Identity, 2(2), 85-101.
• Raes, F., Pommier, E., Neff, K. D., & Van Gucht, D. (2011). Construction and factorial validation of a short form of the Self-Compassion Scale. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 18(3), 250-255.
• Gilbert, P. (2010). Compassion focused therapy: Distinctive features. Routledge.