Fear of Compassion and Big Five Personality Traits in College Students

ABSTRACT

Compassion and self-compassion have significant benefits for well-being and mental health. Recent literature has demonstrated that some individuals experience fear when receiving compassion from oneself or others. Fear of compassion from oneself, from others, and for others are separate but related constructs that have been strongly linked to self-criticism, depression, anxiety, and stress among college students. The present study examines how fears of compassion (measured by the Fear of Compassion scales) relate to Big Five personality traits (measured by the NEO Five Factor Inventory; Costa & McCrae, 1992) in college students. Bivariate correlational analyses revealed fear of compassion to be correlated positively with neuroticism and negatively with extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. These findings add to the literature in understanding which individuals harbor fear of compassion. Clinical implications and recommendations are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Fear of compassion
• personality
• self-compassion
• college students
• university counseling

Disclosure statement

We have no know conflicts of interest to disclose. This study was not preregistered. Materials and analysis code for this study are not available