title: Women's empowerment: Finding strength in self-compassion.
abstract: Empowerment is often a desired outcome for health programs; however, it is rarely evaluated. One way to increase empowerment may be through self-compassion. The authors of the current study aimed to determine whether self-compassion and empowerment were positively related. Two hundred and five women (ages 18 to 48 years) were recruited from a pool of undergraduate students at a university in the southeastern United States in the summer/fall of 2012. Participants completed the study using Qualtrics, an online survey system. Participants wrote about a fight in a romantic relationship and were randomly assigned to write about the fight either self-compassionately or generally. Empowerment and perceptions of the fight were assessed as dependent measures. Hierarchical regression analyses investigated the relation of self-compassion, manipulated self-compassion, and their interaction with empowerment. A significant positive relationship was found between self-compassion and empowerment. However, manipulated self-compassion was not significantly related to empowerment. These findings suggested that self-compassion and empowerment were strongly related, but using a short-term self-compassion intervention may not be strong enough to influence empowerment. Empowerment-based practitioners may find empowerment increases more easily in women who are self-compassionate. If self-compassion is incorporated into empowerment settings, a long-term intervention may be necessary.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Applied Statistics and Research Methods , University of Northern Colorado , Greeley , Colorado , USA.
authors.forename: Olivia
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Stevenson
authors.affiliation: b Department of Psychology , University of North Carolina at Pembroke , Pembroke , North Carolina , USA.
authors.forename: Ashley Batts
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Allen
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011209:Power, Psychological; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012649:Self Concept; D012747:Sexual Partners / Q000523:psychology*; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Empowerment; self-compassion; well-being