A classroom-based pilot of a self-compassion intervention to increase wellbeing in early adolescents

A Classroom-Based Pilot of a Self-Compassion Intervention to Increase Wellbeing in Early adolescents Abstract Objective: Our first aim was to examine the effect of a 4-week self-compassion-based intervention on emotional well-being in a school classroom of early adolescents. The second aim was to evaluate feasibility and accept-ability of the program within a classroom setting. Design: This study was a pre-post pilot design utilizing paired sample t-tests to examine within-person changes in the outcome measures prior to, and following, the inter-vention. Bivariate correlations were also used to assess covariation between the pre-to-post change scores in self-compassion and the pre-to-post change scores in the outcome measures. Setting: The intervention was conducted during a wellbeing class at a culturally diverse secondary school. Participants: The sample comprised 18 students aged 12-to 14-years old ( M age =12.44, SD = 0.61). Intervention: A brief self-compassion-based program, Be Kind to Yourself, Inspire Others, was developed specifically for early adolescents and delivered across four 70-minute lessons. Main outcome measures: The outcome measures were self-compassion, resilience, perceived stress, social and general anxiety, and peer and school connectedness. Results: Findings revealed significant increases in self-compassion, resilience, and peer connectedness, and significant decreases in social and general anxiety at posttest, with small to medium effect sizes (Hedges' g = 0.30-0.67). No significant differences were found for perceived stress and school connectedness. Pre-to-post changes in self-compassion covaried with pre -to-post changes in resilience and peer connectedness. Feasibility and acceptability were high. Findings suggest that a brief, classroom-based self-compassion intervention may be feasible and effective in improving indicators of emotional well-being among early adolescents.