Self-compassion and the self-regulation of exercise: Reactions to failures

Abstract

Most Canadians are not active enough to achieve the health benefits available through regular exercise. Low exercise adherence may be due to the self-regulatory effort required to maintain this behaviour. Self-compassion, treating oneself kindly in the face of failures, is recognized for its adaptive influence on self-regulation of health behaviours, including exercise. However, no research has examined self-compassion and its influence on individuals' response to exercise failures. This online, cross-sectional study's purpose was to investigate the role of self-compassion in the adaptive self-regulation of exercise goals in the context of a recalled exercise failure. Participants were 105 adults aged 18-64 years (M=42.94, SD = 17.18), who could recall a past exercise failure within the last six months. Participants completed online measures of self-compassion, self-esteem, demographics and then provided a detailed description of a past exercise failure. After, they completed questionnaires to assess adaptive self-regulation in this context. Semi-partial correlations revealed that after controlling for self-esteem, self-compassion was negatively related to external motivation (r = -0.207, p < 0.05), and state rumination (r = -0.391, p < 0.005) after an exercise failure. Hierarchical multiple regressions revealed that after controlling for age and self-esteem, self-compassion predicted unique variance in exercise goal re-engagement (r2 change = 0.07, F square change (1,101) = 7.6, p < 0.05) and negative affect (r2 change = 0.04, F square change (1,101) = 7.75, p < 0.05) after an exercise failure/set-back. Findings suggest that self-compassion may assist with the adaptive self-regulation of exercise after an exercise failure.

Acknowledgments: Manitoba Graduate Student Scholarship