Self-compassion predicts mothers’ engagement in health behaviours yet some mothers fear self-compassion. We examined relationships between both self-compassion and fear of self-compassion with mothers’ reactions to prioritizing health behaviours. Mothers rated their self-compassion, fear of self-compassion, read a scenario about prioritizing health behaviours and rated adjectives describing themselves if they behaved as described in the scenario. Self-compassion was positively related to positive reactions to engaging in health behaviours in the midst of motherhood. Fear of self-compassion led to negative reactions. This research provides insight into why some mothers feel better about incorporating health behaviours into their lives than others.

自我同情可以预测母亲对健康行为的参与，但一些母亲害怕自我同情。我们研究了自我同情和对自我同情的恐惧与母亲对优先考虑健康行为的反应之间的关系。母亲们评估他们的自我同情，对自我同情的恐惧，阅读关于优先考虑健康行为的情景，并评价描述自己的形容词，如果他们的行为符合情景中的描述。自我同情与在母亲期间参与健康行为的积极反应呈正相关。对自我同情的恐惧导致负面反应。这项研究揭示了为什么一些母亲在将健康行为融入生活时比其他人感觉更好。