Factorial Validity of the Self-Compassion Scale among University Female Students: A Comparative Study Between Saudi and Egyptian culture

doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-1545536/v1

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Factorial Validity of the Self-Compassion Scale among University Female Students: A Comparative Study Between Saudi and Egyptian culture

https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1545536/v1

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The study aimed to verify the factorial construction of the self-compassion scale across cultures. The study is based on Neff et al.’s (2017) model that explains self-compassion in its three dimensions in a bipolar manner. The researchers relied on the Neff (2003) scale for self-compassion, the abbreviated form of 26 items. The participants consisted of 1039 university students, divided in terms of culture into 521 students at Zagazig University in Egypt, and 518 at Princess Nourah Bint AbdulRahman University in Saudi Arabia. The scale was prepared in the same electronic form. All females of the sample were informed of the purpose of the study. The sample was chosen randomly. Exploratory factor analysis was used to test the stability of items on the dimensions and results showed the stability of the kindness with self, isolation, shared humanity, and self-judgment dimensions. Confirmatory factor analysis results reached the best fit for the total sample. Factor analysis across the two groups was used to verify the existence of differences between Saudi and Egyptian cultures. The results revealed that the Egyptian environment model is superior to its Saudi counterpart, and it has been proven that there are no differences between the two cultures using the factorial differences indicators RSMEA, NNFI, GFI, and SRMR.

Self-compassion

Mental Health

COVID-19

Stress

Psychological impact

Academic satisfaction

In early December 2019, Coronavirus (COVID-19) disease of unknown origin was identified in Wuhan, China, and has now spread worldwide. On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that COVID-19 is an emergency that has caused international concern. Since the beginning of the infection, most governments took quick actions to slow down the virus spread. A state of lockdown was imposed in many countries around the world, travel was restricted. There was social isolation where people stayed at home, and working from home was the case for many employees (Wang, 2020; Erden, et al. 2021).

Adverse effects of COVID-19 are seen not only on the physical health of infected individuals but also on their subjective well-being. Sudden changes in social lives, lockdowns, and shifts towards online education have harmed many people, especially university students (Erden, et al. 2021; Arnout& Al-Sufyani, 2021).

During the COVID-19 outbreak, most students reported increased anxiety, stress, and depression symptoms (Islam et al., 2020; Wang et al., 2020, Ye et al., 2020). Moreover, the students experienced problems with loneliness and boredom (Yehudai et al., 2020). It is observed that the students’ complaints such as depression, anxiety, stress, and loneliness increased during the pandemic, and these complaints affected their well-being.

These observations indicate that the risk perception of COVID-19 varies among individuals, society, and cultures. Risk perception has strong implications for the spread pandemic since it can influence an individual's practice of the recommended behaviors.

The COVID-19 pandemic indeed is now perceived as the global crisis that has posed not only physical health concerns but also mental health considerations to those who either contract directly or indirectly the disease. Pfefferbaum and North (2020) claimed that COVID-19 has resulted in “widespread emotional distress and increased risk for psychiatric illness”.

Self-compassion helps people learn about suffering that originates from their mistakes, failures, and inadequacies. Self-compassion also has a great contribution to the effect of meditation practice on psychological well-being. Self-compassion tends to foster positive reappraisal and proactive coping and reduce avoidant behaviors. Evidence regarding self-compassion salutary effects problem-solving, support seeking, and distraction was however mixed (Lau, et al. 2020; Li, et al. 2021).

Self-compassion helps deactivate the threat system, which is associated with feelings of insecurity, defensiveness, and the limbic system (Gilbert 1989; Neff, 2011). Instead, it supports the self-soothing system that is connected to feelings of secure attachment, safeness, and the oxytocin-opiate system (Neff, 2011). Hence, self-compassion contributes positively to psychological well-being, as it supports people’s sense of safeness and security and reduces negative feelings, including stress, anxiety, and depression. Therefore, based on previous evidence, we hypothesize that self-compassion is positively related to life satisfaction in female students during the corona period.

Research motivation and problem:

During the COVID-19 period, the education system moved to online platforms in many parts of the world, and therefore, students, teachers, and families had to adjust to this change rapidly. University students were one of the most affected groups by this drastic arrangement (Durak et al., 2020; Erden, et al. 2021).

The effect of COVID-19 pandemic stress on the individuals’ mental health has been clear as extensive research revealed that COVID-19 stress could be associated with people’s psychological well-being. For example, El-Zoghby et al. (2020); Lopez et al. (2020) found that the elderly was vulnerable to COVID-19 stress which significantly affected psychological wellness, encompassing personal growth and purpose in life. Their study assessed the strong correlation between age and psychological well-being in the harsh context of the global public health crisis created by COVID-19.

In addition, Wang et al. (2020) found that there have been high levels of psychological impact, including anxiety, depression, and stress on Chinese mental health. (Wang et al., 2020, p. 17). Park and Park (2020) have shown that in Korea, the demand for mental health care during the virus outbreak has been bolstered. González-Sanguino et al. (2020) shows that the sense of belonging and self-compassion are protective components of psychological well-being to these vulnerable people and help to reduce the negative effect of COVID-19 pandemic stress on mental health. A recent study in China investigated the effect of COVID-19 on public psychological status and concluded that females were three times at a higher risk of developing anxiety (Wang, Di, Ye, & Wei, 2020; Naser, et al., 2020). Also, Psychological studies of the Coronavirus have shown women report more psychological consequences than men, such as anxiety and posttraumatic stress disorder (10, 11). Therefore, mental health professionals must pay attention to these differences and psychological challenges (Moghanibashi-Mansourieh, 2020; González-Sanguino, et al. 2020).

Therefore, we shall consider the effect of COVID-19 pandemic stress on individuals’ Self-Compassion. Finally, to complete the hypothesis of the mediating role of the pandemic stress COVID-19 in self-compassion, we need to understand the mechanism by which self-compassion has affected COVID-19 stress.

We have also to examine the effect of COVID-19 on mental health and social support among Egyptian adults during the period of the pandemic, to help in conserving the psychological wellbeing of the community, particularly with its expansion in Egypt and other countries of the world, and the uncertainty surrounding it.

COVID-19 risky behavior and optimistic bias:

COVID-19 is spreading alarmingly because people fail to follow preventive measures. Non-compliance of COVID-19-related precautionary behavior falls under risky behavior, which is socially unacceptable volitional conduct, prompting direct/ circuitous undesired outcomes. Optimistic bias (Weinstein, 1980) is the perception that one's own risk is lower than that of comparable others, leading to the experience of more positive outcomes than similar others. Weinstein (1980) reported that college students tend to exhibit ‘unrealistic optimism' regarding perceptions of risk, i.e., their chances of facing health and safety concerns are seen as less likely than those of their peers. It was observed that high optimistic people indulge in risky behavior. For example, utilizing a national sample, we discover that depression and anxiety are prevalent mental issues during the COVID-19 pandemic. These mental problems impact the psychological well-being of individuals from different communities including university students, healthcare professionals, and the general population. Females, university students, divorced individuals, healthcare professionals at the front-line, and those who are suffering from chronic conditions are at a higher risk (Naser, et al., 2020; El-Zoghby et al. 2020; Van Bortel, 2016).

How do students get information on COVID-19

Many people try to get information about this new disease from specific sources such as TV news, official websites of institutions, or social media. Although studies indicate that information on COVID-19 is mostly obtained from online platforms (Wang, et al. 2020), students rely on information mostly from public health institutions (The Healthy Minds Network & American College Health Association, 2020).

The level of knowledge about the virus and the disease may well be related to the level of anxiety about the future and the satisfaction on academic status, which may have an impact on subjective well-being in the COVID-19 pandemic (Erden, et al. 20121).

Self-Compassion:

Self-compassion was defined as an ability to understand deeply and mindfully the self when “suffering occurs through no fault of one’s own” and “when the external circumstances of life are simply hard to bear” (Lau, et al. 2020). Self-compassion induces favorable emotional regulation (e.g., emotion clarity, impulse control, acceptance of emotional response) which in turn engenders mental health benefits.

Neff (2011) proposed that self-compassion entails (i) extending kindness and understanding to oneself rather than treating oneself with harshness and criticism (self-kindness vs. self-judgment), (ii) seeing one’s suffering as a part of the shared human experience rather than an isolated experience (common humanity vs. isolation), and (iii) a balanced perspective of one’s suffering rather than overly attached to it (mindfulness vs. over-identification) (6). Accordingly, meta-analyses have reported robust negative associations of self-compassion with psychopathology and positive associations with well-being.

Components of self-compassion:

There are three fundamental components of self-compassion: self-kindness, feelings of common humanity, and mindfulness. First, self-kindness implies the tendency to be caring and understanding about being severely self-judgmental (Neff, 2011; Li, et al. 2021). The second is the sense of common humanity that engages individuals with realizing that everyone fails and constantly makes mistakes, which is normally inevitable. It indicates a sense of self-acceptance and that we are imperfect and being or feeling inadequate should be tolerated (Neff, 2011). Third, mindfulness illustrates an awareness of every present moment in a contemplative manner, and thus we with mindfulness will be able to critically ruminate on undesired aspects of ourselves and our lives (Neff, 2011).

COVID-19 effects on Student

Several studies have reported a considerable rise in adult mental disorders during the COVID-19 lockdown; children’s psychological well-being has also been found to be seriously affected) Vallejo-Slocker; 2020; Gutiérrez-Hernández, et al. 2021). One of the groups that have been dramatically affected by the COVID-19 outbreak is university students (El Said, 2021). In many countries, students were suddenly asked to leave their college campus and dormitories and expected to engage in distance learning immediately (Dodd et al., 2021; Hodges, Moore, Lockee, Trust & Bond, 2020). They have experienced isolation from their peers and faculty members, and changes in their living arrangements, financial resources, and study schedules (Umberson & Karas Montez, 2010). Moreover, the pandemic carries uncertainty and unpredictability in the short and long term. It cannot be denied that all these difficulties will have mainly psychological effects as well as socioeconomic and social effects (Pedrosa, Bitencourt, Fróes, Cazumbá, Campos, de Brito & e Silva, 2020). Along with pandemic-related health stresses such as worry about health and uncertainty about the disease, most of the students also have to adjust to new daily and academic arrangements (Liu et al., 2020). Also, it may affect individuals’ mental state, causing them to dwell obsessively on the fearful possibilities of infection, making them irritable, and causing loss of sleep or insomnia.

Psychological effects of self-compassion:

Self-compassion help to improve individuals’ sense of gratitude, and self-compassion interventions increase positive psychological characteristics, including gratitude (Bluth & Eisenlohr-Moul,2017; Nguyen et al., 2020). Multiple empirical studies postulates that self-compassion is linked with positive coping (Li, et al. 2021).

Previous studies have provided supportive evidence that self-compassion has a negative correlation with stress and anxiety. There are extensive studies on self-compassion that demonstrate incredible benefits of this competency for psychological health, encompassing significantly positive association with life satisfaction, emotional intelligence, social connectedness, learning objectives, wisdom, happiness, optimism, less depression, anxiety, xenophobia, and perfectionism (Neff, 2009; Stutts, et al., 2018).

Chishima et al., (2018) found that self-compassion exhibited a positive protective role in individuals when they faced stressful situations. The “Common Humanity” factor that helps people with high self-compassion was less likely to be negatively affected by stressful events because they realized that this was a common human problem, instead of isolating themselves.

Students with high self-compassion might take positive coping strategies to relieve stress when faced with failure. Similarly, empirical studies suggested that individuals with high self-compassion promote the recovery of traumatic events by accepting reality (Li, et al. 2021).

Psychometric structure of self-compassion:

The Self-Compassion Scale has had some psychometric problems due to several psychological justifications, including:

Perceptions of emotions and interacting with others, and this is linked to the emotional ways a person takes during interpersonal interaction. There are non-emotional (behavioral) strategies in which the individual responds to pain, failure, and stress (kindness and judgment), in exchange for understanding his feelings as being general to others, and thus accepting the effects of environmental stressors and looking for solutions (Neff, 2003b; Neff et al., 2017).
The scale is used to determine the emotional state and feelings of acceptance in people with borderline personality disorder, anxiety disorder, and eating disorders (Costa, Marôco, Pinto‐Gouveia, Ferreira & Castilho, 2016).

Some studies (Neff, 2016) found that there exists a prevalent factor that explains the phenomenon that depends on the dominance of a person's mood, either the self-compassion factor or the self-criticism factor. His study used the Bifactor model, and Neff (2016) concluded that the general factor model is a good explanation of the phenomenon by 90%.

Raes, Pommier, Neff & Van Gucht (2011) used confirmatory factor analysis to verify the validity of the short version of the scale on the Dutch participants. The construction suffered from a violation of the normality condition, then, the unweighted least squares method was used. The results reached a best-fitted model. Alpha persistence treatment alpha ranged between 0.55 and 0.87.

In the Iranian environment, Azizi, Mohammadkhani, Lotfi & Bahramkhani (2013) verified the confirmatory construction of the six-factor model on the students at Tehran University, and the model reached acceptable goodness of fit indicators, except for the NNFI and GFI index, and this may be due to a defect in the multivariate normality of the data analysis. The internal consistency was calculated by the alpha coefficient of dimensions, and it ranged from 0.78 to 0.93.

Cunha, Xavier & Castilho (2016) verified the validity of the six-factor model by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) on Portuguese school students, and the validity of the model was proven. The results showed the reliability of the construct across gender, and the convergent validity tested with measures of emotional memories, anxiety, depression, and stress. The poor fit of the second-order general factor model was also proven. The scale's alpha coefficient was 0.88, and Cronbach's alpha coefficients ranged from 0.70 to 0.79.

Despite these results, the results concluded that the confirmatory factor analysis of the six-factor construction of undergraduate students failed in studies (Costa et al., 2016; Neff, 2003b). The results of Costa et al. (2016) focus a general factor of the general factor second order because of the saturation of items from both dimensions on others according to the modification indices. In the Italian environment, Veneziani, Fuochi & Voci (2017) proved the best fit of the six-factor model, and the alpha coefficient of the scale was 0.90, and the alpha coefficients for subscales ranged from 0.69 to 0.78.

Neff et al. (2017) suggest the six-factor model that saturates on two factors in the second-order as a treatment for the two-factor model in which item loaded on each dimension. A good fit is reached according to the confirmatory factor model, and the reliability with omega coefficient for calculating the stability was 0.92. The omega coefficients for the dimensions ranged from 0.85 to 0.90.

Design:

The study relied on the analytical approach, and the design of cross-sectional studies to test the self-compassion structure and the stability of its factors across the Egyptian and Saudi environment. by using quantitative methods to analyze the responses of the study sample.

Participants:

The available sample had been drawn. The sample consisted of 1039 students. The participants were chosen voluntarily after introducing them to the objectives of the study, and that their selection by the sample does not affect their grades in the courses they study. The students could leave free to withdraw from the response on the scale or when felt embarrassed in responding to some items. The study sample was divided into cultures into 521 (50.1%) female students who belong to ZU in Egypt, and 518 (49.9%) at PNARU in KSA. The sample can be described in light of the demographic variables as follows:

Table. 1 demographic variable of the sample

Variable	Levels	Frequency	%
Age	18 to 23 years	975	93.8%
	24 to less than 30 years	51	4.9%
	30 years or more	13	1,3%
College major	Humanities	780	75.1%
	Scientific Faculties	209	20.1%
	Health faculties	50	4.8%
Academic level	First grade	112	10.8%
	Second grade	321	31%
	Third grade	307	29.6%
	Fourth grade	266	25.7%
	Fifth grade	30	2.9%

Measures:

Self-compassion Scale:

A 26 items Neff's (2003) self-compassion scale was used. The scale assesses the traits of self-compassion that appear among states, ideas, feelings, and behaviors that generate the self-compassion components. The subscales are distributed in three bipolar dimensions. It forms items that estimate how repeatedly people react to sentiments of inadequacy or suffering with self-kindness, self-judgment, common humanity, isolation, mindfulness, and over-identification. Multi-Group Confirmatory factor analysis (MG-CFA) was used to test factor models for each culture and the differences between two cultures on the self-compassion scale. In accepting the factorial models, the study relied on the conformance indicators GFI, NNFI, SRMR, AGFI, and the chi-square goodness of fit index, and its P-value should not be statistically significant.

Procedures and Data analysis:

We used accepted guidelines for translation-back-translation. The indicators of the full- or short version of the Self-Compassion Scale were translated into Arabic. It was back- translated into English by a bilingual consultant, and then both translators recommend necessary modifications, restatement, and rewording. Then the questionnaire is validated by three expert opinions that recommend no major modifications. A pilot study was carried out on 31 participants before the study to assess the feasibility and reliability of the questionnaire, with an acceptable Cronbach’s α of 0.74.

Scale formulas in the electronic image through the GOOGLE FORMS platform through the link https://forms.gle/Y6nj1CubjHM244xu7 Responses expressing suffering and lack of empathy recoded so that a higher score acted less stress for this response (The link to the questionnaire was sent through emails, WhatsApp groups, Facebook groups, and other social media). The correlation matrix and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) were estimated using the SPSS v21 program and the multivariate analysis was performed using the Lisrel version 8.51 program. According to the confirmatory factor analysis of the total sample to identify the cohesion and accuracy of construction during the two cultures.

The factor stability of the self-compassion scale items:

Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is used by the principal component analysis (PCA), and orthogonal rotation using the Varimax method. The number of dimension extraction is determined by six dimensions. A factor loading cutoff score equaled to .35 for accept items.

The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin value existed 0.92, which is a high value that indicates the suitability of the exploratory sample for exploratory factor analysis. The number of factors before the rotation was four, and the first factor was a polarizer of the items. The eigenvalues and the explained variance proportions of the factors with and without rotation were as follows:

Table (2): Eigenvalues and the explained variance of self-compassion with and without rotation.

Factor Extracted	Without Rotation
Factor Extracted	Eigenvalue	Explained variance	Eigenvalue	Explained variance
self-kindness	7.53	28.98%	3.80	14.60%
common humanity	3.09	11.90%	3.22	12.38%
mindfulness	1.41	5.41%	2.74	10.56%
self-judgment	1.20	4.62%	2.37	9.12%
isolation	.98	3.79%	1.66	6.39%
over-identification	.97	3.73%	1.39	5.36%

Factor analysis before rotation yielded four factors that explained 50.9% of the total variance of the correlation matrix. The first factor was polarized for overall items without rotation analysis, meaning that the items were distributed over a general factor model. The results were defiant to previous studies without rotation on four factors, and this is because the phenomenon distributed in three bipolar dimensions, which made the items shrink into the four factors.

The factorial analysis after varimax orthogonal rotation resulted in six factors that explained 58.4% of the total variance of the phenomenon. The dimension eigenvalues ranged between 3.80 and 1.39, and this means that the items were extracted into six factors that he assumed (Krause, 2011). The items of factor loadings after rotation were as follows:

Table 4

The items of factor loadings after rotation
no	Fist factor	Second factor	Third factor	Fourth factor	Fifth factor	Sixth factor
1		.72
2		.70
3	.35			.62
4		.57	.38
5	.37				− .45
6		.59	.39
7				.77
8		.45			.56
9	.40					− .68
10				.79
11		.55
12	.52				− .46
13			.82
14	.64
15				.60
16		.62
17	.64
18			.82
19	.66
20						.75
21					.63
22	.66
23	.71
24			.49
25		.43	.51
26	.74

The results revealed the stability of the factors of self-compassion, common humanity, self-judgment, and isolation, as they were stable, and their items distributed over them as the original construction of the theory assumed. It also revealed that the factors were mindfulness and over-identification factors were globally unstable.

The factorial validity of the self-compassion scale for the total participants:

CFA technique by using unweighted least squares (ULS) method was performed. The results revealed the negative determinant of the correlation matrix, because of violating the multivariate normality conditional. The goodness of fit indicators was (RMSEA = .043, X2 = 454.5, P = .000, NNFI = 1, GFI = .98, SRMR = .051, AGFI = .97) and the factor loading of the six factors on second-order two-factor model were as follows:

Table 5

the factor loading of the six factors on second-order two-factor mode
Components	Subscale factors	Factor loadings	Std. error	t-value
	self-kindness	.96	.035	37.73
	common humanity	.65	.026	25.02
	mindfulness	.97	.026	37.28
	self-judgment	.98	.026	37.85
	isolation	.92	.025	37.03
	over-identification	.97	.026	37.48

The factor loading of the six subscales was statistically significant on the second-order two-factor model. Table (6) displays the factor loadings of the 26 items on the six factors as follows:

Table 6

the factor loadings of the 26 items on the six factors
Subscales	no	Factor loadings	Std. error	t-value
self-kindness	5	.40	.084	10.06
	12	.66	.12	5.51
	19	.70	.12	5.61
	23	.66	.12	5.52
	26	.73	.13	5.54
common humanity	3	.78	.10	3.99
	7	.70	.062	11.35
	10	.64	.059	10.88
	15	.41	.047	8.75
mindfulness	9	.46	.085	9.27
	14	.71	.095	7.54
	17	.67	.096	6.98
	22	.77	.10	7.44
self-judgment	1	.48	.085	9.02
	8	.60	.077	7.80
	11	.66	.084	7.90
	16	.65	.083	7.81
	21	.64	.086	7.40
isolation	4	.70	.098	5.76
	13	.64	.049	13.04
	18	.59	.048	12.49
	25	.77	.054	14.20
over-identification	2	.51	.086	8.95
	6	.71	.087	8.19
	20	.44	.066	6.71
	24	.61	.079	7.72

It is clear from the results that the hypothetical model of self-compassion in its sub-dimensions approximates the sample data in the Egyptian and Saudi societies together. The results showed an acceptable model according to fit indices, but the chi-square index was poor in terms of goodness of fit due to the large sample size.

This is lined with a study by Allen et al. (2012) that indicates high self-compassionate people adopted a compassionate mindset, which allowed them to cope with challenges and stressors by treating themselves with care and kindness. They learned that their situations were part of the greater human experience, and, therefore, they did not allow themselves to be carried away by strong and negative emotions (Allen et al., 2012).

Factorial structure Differences Across Cultures:

The study operated a Multi-groups Confirmatory factor analysis (MG-CFA), for the two-sample cultures, which are the two groups (PNARU and ZU). Matching model structures in each culture, and differences between the two cultures universities, were estimated. The results were as follows:

Table 7

Multi-groups confirmatory factor analysis results for two samples.
Sample	RMSEA	NNFI	GFI	SRMR
ZU	.063	.97	.97	.057
PNU	.075	.97	.97	.061
Differences	.065	.96	.96	.071

The results showed that the model describing self-compassion among ZU students has fitted indices. The results confirmed the goodness of fit at the ideal levels among the PNU's participants. The Egyptian background outperformed it in the Saudi environment in its fitting, because hardness to oneself may be high in the Saudi participant, which presents the violation of the multivariate normality data condition of the Saudi environment. Violation of the normality condition in the educational perspective indicates the sample's tendency towards negative details of emotion (cruelty on oneself). Also, the goodness-of-fit of factorial differences in the two cultures was confirmed, which means that there are no differences across the two cultures and that the model construction is suitable for application across the two cultures without change.

These findings are in line with other studies that suggested that women are more vulnerable to depression for several reasons including differences in personality characteristics (Carrillo, Rojo, & Staats, 2004) and socio-cultural roles (Piccinelli & Wilkinson, 2000). In line with this, such a difference in our results might be related to the caregiving role in families where women may be more involved in providing physical and emotional support to the elderly or children (Xiong et al., 2020).

The results are consistent with the results of Skoda (2011), which tried to identify self-compassion and its relationship to depression and tolerance, that is, when an individual goes through difficult times, he gives himself what he needs of care and tenderness, optimism, hope, and kindness to oneself, and thus leads to an enhancement of self-compassion.

Delimitations:

There are some limitations that should be addressed in future research. First, because this study was designed according to a cross-sectional research model, even though the relationship between investigated variables can be explained, the causal relationship cannot be strongly confirmed. Future studies may consider conducting a longitudinal or empirical research model to shed light on this relationship. Second, we adopted the participant’s self-report by the online survey method, so it is likely that the common method bias has a certain effect on the results we obtained. Future researchers may use a wider variety of data collection methods (e.g., experiments, other forms of reports) to reduce the effect of the common method bias and increase the validity of research results. Third, most of the participants in the current study were women from only two universities, and a group of other universities can help generalize the results.

The current study aimed to develop the self-compassion scale in the Arab environment on university students. Two different cultures were chosen, one Saudi and the other Egyptian. Princess Noura University was chosen to represent the Saudi culture, and Zagazig University was chosen to represent the Egyptian culture. Self-compassion is a construct that experiences the reinforcement of an emotional state through awareness and acceptance of difficult feelings experienced by Neff (2003b).

The present study differed in nature from that of Costa et al. (2016) where the six factors model tested on two second-order factors. As bipolar traits which phenomena was six factor. This expresses a different view of the study of self-compassion as a bipolar construct that saturates on three factors.

The results differed with the model parameter estimates in the Neff model (2003b) where the model was identical to the sample data at the undergraduate level, but with the limitations of the study that the value of the X² index was significant, and perhaps this is due to the violation of the multivariate normality condition.

It is clear from the results that the scale, despite its translation from a foreign culture and its application to the Arab environment, proved its credibility in the Arab environment with some limitations in the analysis, and this contradicts the results of the Hellfrich's (1999) who holds that Etic and this term refer to a foreign scale pre-constructed and translated into the mother tongue, and has been applied in different cultures as in studies (Raes et al., 2011). While in the Emic studies that referred to the construction of the scale items considering the prevalent culture in the community, and the results of these studies were conducted (Neff, 2003b; Neff et al., 2017).

The reliability coefficient of the scale items in the current study was 0.70, which is an acceptable value. While the alpha coefficients were self-kindness 0.77, common humanity 0.73, mindfulness 0.75, self-judgment 0.74, isolation 0.78, and over- identification 0.66.

Veneziani et al. (2017) agreed with the current study in high stability of isolation dimension, which means that the sample is different in expressing self-compassion, and that other factors work on the individual's lack of self-acceptance due to the controlled emotion, his self-esteem, and his level of depression. Also, the high value of the isolation dimension reflects heterogeneity among the sample members in expressing their opinions and accepting external influences.

The value of the alpha coefficient is low in studies (Cunha et al., 2016; Veneziani et al., 2017), and this is due to the translation of the current study scale from a foreign culture, and its application to the Egyptian and the Saudi culture. This is different from a study that finds emotional traits to be more stable across cultures (Scollon, Diener, Oishi & Biswas-Diener, 2004). Also, the low value of the alpha coefficient for the exaggerated identification dimension indicates the low scores of the sample on this dimension, as confirmed by a study (Cunha et al., 2016).

The results of global stability agreed with the results of the Birkett study (2014) in three things: self-kindness to oneself, shared humanity, and isolation. While the current study by Birkett concluded (2014) that self-judgment is one of the stable factors, while another study considers that excessive specificity was one of the stable factors, and this justifies the Arab university person’s cruelty with himself, which causes blame, and it may go ahead from Low in the physical or social self-image of the university student.

The current study has some limitations: it did not test the differences across gender due to the difference in the sample, and that the resulting decision may lead the researcher into a mistake of the first type. The differences between age levels vary in number. And that the majority of the number falls on an age journey between 18 to 23, and it differs in its emotional, intellectual, and behavioral nature from the rest of the age stages. The number of students of Humanities is three times higher than scientific and medical colleges’ students, which makes it impossible to test the stability of measurement for builders across age groups, genders, and specializations.

Our findings highlight the role of self-compassion to buffer the adverse consequences of perceived threats on well-being and to facilitate a general tendency to find benefits regardless of threats. Our findings can guide future researchers, mental health professionals, universities, and policymakers to understand and improve the self-compassion among university students. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a substantial impact on university students’ life. Many of the students were not familiar with distance learning. After the pandemic, a new concept, “online instruction” has become a part of their daily routines and affected their self-compassionate and subjective well-being. Also, it can be thought that social contact with family and friends, which can be perceived as more reliable sources, may cause positive Self-compassion by affecting the information process about COVID-19.

Based on the findings, we recommend that first the policymakers should pay more attention to the mental health issues of individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic. Second, to improve the human psychological Self-compassion and reduce the stress and fears in the age of the COVID-19 pandemic, we can practice self-compassion. Third, psychologists and counselors can incorporate these concepts and practices into discussions and training courses to improve the psychological self-compassionate and well-being of students in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Fourth, the universities can establish new social support channels through the university to make a positive contribution to students’ Self-compassion.

It is crucial to understand that building foundation of self-compassion does benefit to increase people’s psychological well-being, as it supports people to cope with COVID-19 stress. Also, it can increase awareness, can increase the taken protective measures and the needed procedures in case of suspected infection, which can decrease the sense of stress. For further research, we believe it is important to take into consideration the effects of demographic factors such as financial resources, living arrangements, and gender differences on self-compassion during the COVID-19 pandemic. Or compare the cultural differences of psychological characteristics (e.g., life-satisfaction, self-compassion) and their associations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, examine the mediating effect of positive coping and the moderating role of gender in the relationship between self-compassion and life satisfaction.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all the participants for their co-operation.

Funding: This work was funded by the Deanship of Scientific Research at Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, through the Research Groups Program Grant no. (RGP-1440-0020).

Compliance with Ethical Standards

Conflict of interest: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval:

All procedures performed in the study followed the ethical standards of the institutional research committee of Faculty of Arts Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University (IRB Log Number: 20-0473), and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments.

Data Availability Statement

The raw data supporting the conclusion of this article will be available upon request to the corresponding author.

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Factorial Validity of the Self-Compassion Scale among University Female Students: A Comparative Study Between Saudi and Egyptian culture

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Abstract

Introduction

Literature Review

Method

Results

The factor stability of the self-compassion scale items:

The factorial validity of the self-compassion scale for the total participants:

Factorial structure Differences Across Cultures:

Discussion

Conclusion

Declarations

References

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