Efficacy of a self-compassion intervention program on academic achievement in Higher Education

Introduction: Self-compassion (SC), disposition to treat oneself in a kind way, affects the teaching-learning processes in higher education. This study analyzes the relationship between SC and academic achievement in students of the Degree in Psychology. Method: A pretest-posttest study with both, experimental and control groups, was designed. The first one received a SC training program throughout the academic course. Two hypotheses were tested: 1st, the program would improve SC levels facing difficulties: a) in the study (SC-SD) and b) in the application of the curricular contents to the daily life (SC-ACDL); 2nd, a positive and significant relation between both constructs and academic achievement. Two scales were created in order to evaluate the specific commented facets of SC. Results: The intervention program yielded a significant improvement in SC- SD and SC- ACDL. The experimental group understood the concept and usefulness of the SC, so that positive and significant correlations between the intra-individual change in SC-ACDL and academic achievement were obtained. In the control group, on the contrary, several intra-individual improvement measures in SC reliably correlated to academic achievement, but in this case with negative sign. Discussion: Globally considered, the results lend significant support to the hypotheses proposed. Implications of the program developed are discussed and the need of considering SC as a potential key of educational innovation to take into account in the university in the context of the competences in the European Higher Education Area is suggested.