Everybody fails sometimes : evaluating an academic self-compassion intervention

First generation students (FGS) are twice as likely as their non-first generation peers to drop out of college (Chen, 2005). FGS experience a host of challenges related to their generational status including poor academic preparation, limited familial support, nonstrategic college learning behaviors, and problematic coping with academic disappointment. When FGS earn low grades, they often attribute their outcomes to an uncontrollable factor such low intelligence (Dweck & Leggett, 1998) rather than poor preparation for success or misunderstanding, more controllable factors. Some FGS, however, matriculate through college successfully despite their risk status. One reason might be that the FGS who are resilient to their risk status exhibit more self-compassion in the face of perceived or actual low grades. The proposed study investigates relations between self-compassion for poor academic performance and college outcomes (i.e., motivation, self-efficacy, anxiety, fear of failure, goal orientation, and theory of intelligence) for FGS using hierarchical regression. The implications for this proposed study result in an intervention: a self-compassion training program designed to supplement a college learning skills course. Ultimately, this intervention will increase students’ self-compassion as well as the previously stated college outcomes. Finally, increases in self-compassion will improve college students’ retention and achievement.