Fears of compassion scales in psychosis: confirmatory factor analysis and psychometric properties

Previous research has supported the emergence of approaches focused on the cultivation of compassion as a means of decreasing psychopathology and improving well-being. However, some individuals show resistance against compassion, which may compromise these interventions. The Fears of Compassion Scales (FCS) is a self-report questionnaire comprising three scales, that measure fear of compassion (FC) for others, from others and for self. The aim of this study was to confirm the original factor structure of FCS and examine its psychometric properties, in a sample of Portuguese individuals with psychosis. A total of 196 participants (141 male and 55 female) diagnosed with a psychotic disorder or a mood disorder with psychotic features answered a set of self-report questionnaires that included the FCS, as well as measures of self-criticism, self-compassion, social safeness and severity of psychotic symptomatology. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated an excellent fit to the single-factor structure for each scale. FC from others and for self scales maintained all the items, however, four items with inadequate loadings were removed in the FC for others scale. The three scales were correlated with each other and showed the expected associations with the remaining measures. Additionally, FC from others and FC for self were associated with both positive and negative psychotic symptomatology. Overall, our results confirm that the FCS is a reliable and valid measure of FC in individuals with psychosis and reinforce that it may be a useful tool in clinical and research settings.