Self-compassion versus self-esteem in predicting life satisfaction among college students

• Main Authors: Go, Jenisha T., Palafox, Danina Gabrielle M., Santos, Ayana Angelica A., Tamayo, Karla Anne C.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2013
• Subjects: Self-esteem > Students; Compassion; Self-esteem in adolescence > Philippines; Psychology
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/11178
• Institution: De La Salle University

Much importance has been placed on taking care of people's self-esteem, and on promoting this in order to ultimately improve the quality of people's lives. However, increasing research and evidence are considering that there are other things more important than self-esteem, such as self-compassion. Previous correlates also point to the greater overall advantages of self-compassion over self-esteem. Using life satisfaction as one of the indicators of subjective well-being, this study sought to verify the abilities of both self-compassion and self-esteem to predict life satisfaction. It also looked at whether self compassion would be better than self-esteem in predicting life satisfaction. Multiple regression was used in this non-experimental quantitative study to analyze data. In the assessment of the data gathered from questionnaires given to 289 undergraduate college students from different colleges in De La Salle University Manila, self-compassion and self-esteem did turn out to both be significant predictors of life satisfaction. Moreover, self-compassion appeared to be a stronger predictor of life satisfaction than self-esteem. This study supports recommendations for placing more emphasis on cultivating self-compassion rather than self-esteem to help promote people's health and well-being.