College is a time for exploration, pursuing interests, learning and developing the self. More than ever before, college students are succumbing to overwhelming stress, having difficulties bouncing back from setbacks, and feeling disconnected.
College faculty and staff are in a unique position to nurture and support exploration and well-being while challenging student social, emotional and intellectual growth. Our professional development workshops take a developmental approach to understanding student needs and provide faculty with tools for building resilience in their students. With an emphasis on self-care and self-reflection, we support educators in their quest to create a balance between supporting students and maintaining academic rigor and high expectations for achievement.
Workshops are available for faculty, administration, residence life, counseling centers, women's centers and first year programming.
College faculty and staff are in a unique position to nurture and support exploration and well-being while challenging student social, emotional and intellectual growth. Our professional development workshops take a developmental approach to understanding student needs and provide faculty with tools for building resilience in their students. With an emphasis on self-care and self-reflection, we support educators in their quest to create a balance between supporting students and maintaining academic rigor and high expectations for achievement.
Workshops are available for faculty, administration, residence life, counseling centers, women's centers and first year programming.
Below are the findings of our brief self-compassion intervention with high-risk undergraduate students.
Effectiveness of a Brief Self-Compassion Group Intervention
Susan Averna, PhD
Introduction
Self-compassion has been defined as treating oneself with care and concern when considering personal inadequacies, mistakes, failures, and painful life situations and involves three aspects: self-kindness versus self-judgment, a sense of common humanity versus isolation, and mindfulness versus over-identification (Neff, 2003a). Self-compassion is associated with greater perseverance in the face of setbacks, less negative affect and less perceived stress. As such, training in self-compassion may be useful to students in competitive environments. With training and practice, significant change in self-compassion has been reported in as little as three weeks. The present study investigated the effectiveness of a 3 week self-compassion group intervention for enhancing resilience and well-being among female undergraduate nursing students.
Participants
Nine undergraduate nursing students from an inner-city university in the Northeast were selected to participate in the intervention. Students were older than traditional undergraduates (M = 30, SD = 6.86) and experienced economic hardship and significant life stressors impacting academics. They were selected to receive the intervention as part of a larger array of services aimed at supporting their academic success. All participants were in their junior year of a four year nursing program.
Design
Students voluntarily took part in a group that met once weekly for 1.5 hours and included discussion, practicing mindfulness and mindful yoga, breath-focused and loving-kindness meditation and self-compassion exercises. Home practice between meetings was encouraged to cultivate skills and discussed at subsequent meetings. Quantitative self-report measures on self-compassion and perceived stress were completed pre and post intervention. Qualitative responses on the experience and usefulness of the intervention were also collected at the third meeting. Eight of the nine students completed the intervention and pre/post measures. A repeated measures design was used to test change in perceived stress and self-compassion over the course of the intervention.
Measures
Participants were given the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS; Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., and Mermelstein, R., 1983) and the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS; Neff, 2003a) before the first meeting and after the third. The Perceived Stress Scale is a 10 item scale designed to tap how unpredictable, uncontrollable, and overloaded respondents find their lives. The scale also includes a number of direct queries about current levels of experienced stress. Responses on the PSS are given on a 5-point scale ranging from ‘‘Never’’ to ‘‘Very Often,’’ with higher scores representing greater perceived stress. The Self-Compassion Scale is a 26 item scale and includes six subscales: Self-Kindness (5 items, e.g., ‘‘I try to be understanding and patient towards those aspects of my personality I don’t like’’); Self-Judgment (5 items, e.g., ‘‘I’m disapproving and judgmental about my own flaws and inadequacies’’); Common Humanity (4 items, e.g., ‘‘I try to see my failings as part of the human condition’’); Isolation (4 items, e.g., ‘‘When I think about my inadequacies it tends to make me feel more separate and cut off from the rest of the world’’); Mindfulness (4 items, e.g., ‘‘When something painful happens I try to take a balanced view of the situation’’); and Over-Identification (4 items, e.g., ‘‘When I’m feeling down I tend to obsess and fixate on everything that’s wrong’’). Responses on the SCS are given on a 5-point scale ranging from ‘‘Almost Never’’ to ‘‘Almost Always,’’ with higher scores representing greater self-compassion. Qualitative interviews were conducted after the final meeting. Participants were asked to “Describe your experience in the group.” and “What, if anything, did you find useful?”
Results
A Wilcoxon test showed that overall self-compassion increased W(8) = 2, p < .05, one-tailed, as well as two of the subscales: mindfulness W(8) = 5, p < .05, one-tailed and common humanity W(8) = 2.5 , p < .05, one-tailed. As predicted, scores on two other subscales decreased: isolation W(7) = 2, p < .05, one-tailed; and other identification W(8) = 1.5 , p < .05, one-tailed. There was no change in self-judgment W(8) = 14.5, NS, one-tailed or self-kindness W(8) = 8.5, NS, one-tailed. There was no significant change in perceived stress W(7)= 6.5 NS, two-tailed, but change in overall self-compassion negatively correlated with change in perceived stress (rs = -.41). Qualitatively, a common theme among participants was that listening to others share their struggles made them feel less alone (increased common humanity and decreased isolation). Participants spoke of feeling less guilty about taking care of themselves. Several reported on employing specific skills (i.e. loving-kindness mediation and diaphragmatic breathing) which helped them over the course of the training in their daily lives. One participant spoke of how she was more aware of her self-criticism but still had a hard time counteracting it. This mirrored the quantitative findings of increased mindfulness without change in self-kindness or self-judgment.
Discussion
This brief self-compassion intervention led to significantly greater increases in overall self-compassion as well as aspects of self-compassion, including common humanity and mindfulness. Participants reported a significant decrease in feelings of isolation and other identification. No significant change was noted in self-kindness or self-judgment. There was an inverse relationship between change in self-compassion and change in perceived stress over the course of the intervention. Qualitative feedback corroborated the usefulness of strategies for enhancing a sense of common humanity, mindfulness, and overall self-compassion and for managing stress. Results suggest the usefulness of a brief self-compassion intervention to influence mindset and raise awareness of negative self-talk. Students found the group setting helpful in that sharing of common struggles in the group led to a greater sense of common humanity. Lack of significant change in self-kindness and self-judgment suggests a need for additional practice to move beyond raising awareness of internal states and thoughts to changing the internal dialogue. Though a longer intervention may bring about more positive changes, it appears that a brief intervention has worthwhile impact while teaching skills that can continue to be practiced after the intervention is finished. Presenting a variety of techniques allowed for individuals to choose those most helpful to them and to cultivate a personal practice beyond the intervention. Given the time constraints on this population, a brief intervention appears to be a worthwhile investment of time.
Cohen, S. Kamarck, T., & Mermelstein, R. (1983).A global measure of perceived stress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 24(4) 385-396.
Neff, K. D. (2003a). Development and validation of a scale to measure self-compassion. Self
and Identity, 2, 223–250.
Susan Averna, PhD
Introduction
Self-compassion has been defined as treating oneself with care and concern when considering personal inadequacies, mistakes, failures, and painful life situations and involves three aspects: self-kindness versus self-judgment, a sense of common humanity versus isolation, and mindfulness versus over-identification (Neff, 2003a). Self-compassion is associated with greater perseverance in the face of setbacks, less negative affect and less perceived stress. As such, training in self-compassion may be useful to students in competitive environments. With training and practice, significant change in self-compassion has been reported in as little as three weeks. The present study investigated the effectiveness of a 3 week self-compassion group intervention for enhancing resilience and well-being among female undergraduate nursing students.
Participants
Nine undergraduate nursing students from an inner-city university in the Northeast were selected to participate in the intervention. Students were older than traditional undergraduates (M = 30, SD = 6.86) and experienced economic hardship and significant life stressors impacting academics. They were selected to receive the intervention as part of a larger array of services aimed at supporting their academic success. All participants were in their junior year of a four year nursing program.
Design
Students voluntarily took part in a group that met once weekly for 1.5 hours and included discussion, practicing mindfulness and mindful yoga, breath-focused and loving-kindness meditation and self-compassion exercises. Home practice between meetings was encouraged to cultivate skills and discussed at subsequent meetings. Quantitative self-report measures on self-compassion and perceived stress were completed pre and post intervention. Qualitative responses on the experience and usefulness of the intervention were also collected at the third meeting. Eight of the nine students completed the intervention and pre/post measures. A repeated measures design was used to test change in perceived stress and self-compassion over the course of the intervention.
Measures
Participants were given the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS; Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., and Mermelstein, R., 1983) and the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS; Neff, 2003a) before the first meeting and after the third. The Perceived Stress Scale is a 10 item scale designed to tap how unpredictable, uncontrollable, and overloaded respondents find their lives. The scale also includes a number of direct queries about current levels of experienced stress. Responses on the PSS are given on a 5-point scale ranging from ‘‘Never’’ to ‘‘Very Often,’’ with higher scores representing greater perceived stress. The Self-Compassion Scale is a 26 item scale and includes six subscales: Self-Kindness (5 items, e.g., ‘‘I try to be understanding and patient towards those aspects of my personality I don’t like’’); Self-Judgment (5 items, e.g., ‘‘I’m disapproving and judgmental about my own flaws and inadequacies’’); Common Humanity (4 items, e.g., ‘‘I try to see my failings as part of the human condition’’); Isolation (4 items, e.g., ‘‘When I think about my inadequacies it tends to make me feel more separate and cut off from the rest of the world’’); Mindfulness (4 items, e.g., ‘‘When something painful happens I try to take a balanced view of the situation’’); and Over-Identification (4 items, e.g., ‘‘When I’m feeling down I tend to obsess and fixate on everything that’s wrong’’). Responses on the SCS are given on a 5-point scale ranging from ‘‘Almost Never’’ to ‘‘Almost Always,’’ with higher scores representing greater self-compassion. Qualitative interviews were conducted after the final meeting. Participants were asked to “Describe your experience in the group.” and “What, if anything, did you find useful?”
Results
A Wilcoxon test showed that overall self-compassion increased W(8) = 2, p < .05, one-tailed, as well as two of the subscales: mindfulness W(8) = 5, p < .05, one-tailed and common humanity W(8) = 2.5 , p < .05, one-tailed. As predicted, scores on two other subscales decreased: isolation W(7) = 2, p < .05, one-tailed; and other identification W(8) = 1.5 , p < .05, one-tailed. There was no change in self-judgment W(8) = 14.5, NS, one-tailed or self-kindness W(8) = 8.5, NS, one-tailed. There was no significant change in perceived stress W(7)= 6.5 NS, two-tailed, but change in overall self-compassion negatively correlated with change in perceived stress (rs = -.41). Qualitatively, a common theme among participants was that listening to others share their struggles made them feel less alone (increased common humanity and decreased isolation). Participants spoke of feeling less guilty about taking care of themselves. Several reported on employing specific skills (i.e. loving-kindness mediation and diaphragmatic breathing) which helped them over the course of the training in their daily lives. One participant spoke of how she was more aware of her self-criticism but still had a hard time counteracting it. This mirrored the quantitative findings of increased mindfulness without change in self-kindness or self-judgment.
Discussion
This brief self-compassion intervention led to significantly greater increases in overall self-compassion as well as aspects of self-compassion, including common humanity and mindfulness. Participants reported a significant decrease in feelings of isolation and other identification. No significant change was noted in self-kindness or self-judgment. There was an inverse relationship between change in self-compassion and change in perceived stress over the course of the intervention. Qualitative feedback corroborated the usefulness of strategies for enhancing a sense of common humanity, mindfulness, and overall self-compassion and for managing stress. Results suggest the usefulness of a brief self-compassion intervention to influence mindset and raise awareness of negative self-talk. Students found the group setting helpful in that sharing of common struggles in the group led to a greater sense of common humanity. Lack of significant change in self-kindness and self-judgment suggests a need for additional practice to move beyond raising awareness of internal states and thoughts to changing the internal dialogue. Though a longer intervention may bring about more positive changes, it appears that a brief intervention has worthwhile impact while teaching skills that can continue to be practiced after the intervention is finished. Presenting a variety of techniques allowed for individuals to choose those most helpful to them and to cultivate a personal practice beyond the intervention. Given the time constraints on this population, a brief intervention appears to be a worthwhile investment of time.
Cohen, S. Kamarck, T., & Mermelstein, R. (1983).A global measure of perceived stress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 24(4) 385-396.
Neff, K. D. (2003a). Development and validation of a scale to measure self-compassion. Self
and Identity, 2, 223–250.
Dr. Averna spoke on the importance of the faculty-student relationship as part of a series on advising at Trinity College.
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Raising the BAR: Belonging, Acceptance, and Resilience
Presented by Susan Averna, Ph.D., School Mental Health Consultant More than ever before, college students are succumbing to overwhelming stress, having difficulties bouncing back from setbacks, and feeling disconnected. In the classroom, students take fewer risks, desire certainty, and are grade obsessed. College faculty and staff are in a unique position to support student exploration and well-being while challenging their social, emotional, and intellectual growth. Learn how the teaching and advising relationship can be the basis for developing resilience in students while maintaining high expectations and academic rigor. We will discuss the toll these challenges take on faculty and how to support faculty well-being. A spring semester workshop will follow. Reflection and Resilience: How to Maintain Positive Relationships with Students
A Workshop with Susan Averna, Ph.D., School Mental Health Consultant Faculty-student relationships are pivotal for student academic success and mental well-being. The students who may need the most support are often the ones most difficult to teach and advise. In this workshop, we will discuss the dynamics of challenging relationships. Using reflective exercises, we will practice constructive ways of being with students. A goal is to help us recognize how self-compassion can reduce burnout and improve relationships between faculty and students. |
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