Self-compassion as a Transdiagnostic Construct: A Multilevel Meta-analysis of Associations with Psychopathology at Overall, Dimensional, and Component Levels

Abstract Objectives This meta-analysis provided a comprehensive synthesis of research on the relationship between trait self-compassion (SC), operationalised by the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS), and symptoms of psychopathology, including depression, anxiety, PTSD, and eating disorders. Given that SC is a multifaceted construct, we examined it at the overall, dimensional (compassionate and uncompassionate self-responding; CS and UCS), and component levels (mindfulness, self-kindness, common humanity, self-judgement, over-identification and isolation) to identify distinct patterns of association. Method We analysed 256 studies (1106 effect sizes; N = 107,304) with a three-level approach to meta-analysis with restricted maximum likelihood estimation. Results Overall SC showed a strong negative association with psychopathology symptoms ( r = −0.50). The UCS dimension ( r = 0.49) was more strongly linked to psychopathology than the CS dimension ( r = −0.31). The UCS dimension showed the strongest association with depression ( r = 0.53) and anxiety ( r = 0.49), followed by eating disorders ( r = 0.44) and PTSD ( r = 0.26), while the CS dimension showed its strongest association with depression ( r = −0.35). At the component level, self-kindness was consistently linked to lower psychopathology across symptom domains, while mindfulness and common humanity had the strongest associations with lower PTSD symptoms. Over-identification and isolation showed stronger links to symptoms in non-clinical and medically vulnerable groups (all p < 0.05). Additionally, age, gender, ethnicity, and publication year did not significantly moderate these associations (all p > 0.05). Conclusions Our findings demonstrated the transdiagnostic relevance of SC and emphasise the need to treat it as a multifaceted construct when examining its relationship with psychopathology. Preregistration This study is not preregistered.