Self-Compassion Scale: Self-Kindness

What this component asks

These five items concern offering yourself care, warmth, tolerance and patience while experiencing pain or noticing disliked aspects of yourself. They do not ask whether you approve of every action. Self-kindness can coexist with admitting an error and taking responsibility. The scale reads your reported frequency of these responses, without observing how you actually behave under pressure.

Read frequency and direction

A larger raw mean reflects more reported self-kindness on these items; a smaller mean reflects less. Neither establishes generosity toward other people, emotional strength or moral character. Someone might use gentle words but lack a quiet place to recover. Another person may want care but find this wording unfamiliar. The result cannot distinguish those possibilities or explain their causes.

A correction without an insult

Suppose you sent a document with an error. “I missed this detail; I will correct it and tell the recipient” names the problem. “I am useless and should never try” adds a judgement of the whole person. A kinder alternative need not deny the inconvenience caused. This example illustrates a response to a mistake; it is not evidence that a given score predicts better performance or faster recovery.

Try one accurate, supportive sentence

For one ordinary setback, write a sentence you could realistically offer a friend, then adapt it to yourself: “This is disappointing, and I can take one next step.” Use words you can accept; forced affection or praise is not required. A counterexample is declaring “nothing matters” and avoiding a necessary repair. Notice whether the sentence describes reality while leaving room for care, rather than grading yourself on whether it worked.

Arithmetic, missing answers and close values

• Items 5, 12, 19, 23, 26 form this 5-item part. All are positive-keyed. Add the original responses and divide by 5. The raw and keyed means are identical; for example, a sum of 15 gives 3.00. This part is one of six equally weighted means in the overall calculation.
• Equal or nearby means do not identify a winning trait, prove that two experiences are equivalent or establish a meaningful change. Compare the situations behind your own answers privately, without ranking people. One skipped answer withholds that part and the overall mean; other fully answered parts still have means. No skipped item is zero, and no missing answer is estimated. This strict completeness rule is a website policy, not a validated missing-data threshold.

Source and an optional next step

• This uses the 26-item Self-Compassion Scale, with attribution to Neff (2003), and the current official mean-of-six-means scoring key. The permission letter allows use for any purpose with citation; the official FAQ permits translation. This is copyrighted work used under that permission, not public-domain material. The Chinese items are a new FermatMind working translation, without empirical validation or established cross-language equivalence. Results are for voluntary adult self-reflection, without diagnosis, employment selection or a claim to measure personal worth.
• The full guide is free and public before answering, including when this part has no personal mean. You may finish here. A separate self-esteem assessment asks a different question about reported global self-regard; this SCS mean does not convert into that score. Optional drafts remain in this tab for at most 24 hours. Copying shares only a public title and link, never these answers or personal numbers.