Daily effects of a brief compassion‐focused intervention for self‐compassion

Abstract Interventions for increasing self‐compassion are typically assessed through retrospective reports, which may not accurately capture everyday self‐compassionate behaviour. Our study addresses this using experience sampling to evaluate a brief compassion‐focused intervention's effects on needs for self‐compassion, awareness of opportunities for self‐compassion, self‐compassionate behaviour and emotional responses to one's distress in daily life. Results indicated that the intervention was associated with less likelihood of reporting needs and opportunities for self‐compassion but with no difference in self‐compassionate actions or emotional experience. When participants acted self‐compassionately, they reported more positive emotional experiences after needing self‐compassion. This underscores the disparity between retrospective and ecological assessments, emphasizing the need for interventions to be evaluated in real‐life contexts.