Having a positive body image contributes to adolescents’ and emerging adults’ psychological well-being. One approach to protecting one’s body image from appearance threats involves adopting a self-compassionate perspective. This study explored how six different facets of trait self-compassion are used by late adolescents and emerging adults to cope with appearance-related distress. Following Institutional Review Board approval, in-depth interviews were conducted with 16 female and 14 male undergraduates (M_age = 18.77 years, SD = 1.77 years) who reported either positive or negative body image and high or low self-compassion. Adopting a descriptive/confirmative approach, data were analyzed via an a priori coding system based on the six facets of self-compassion. Only one self-compassion facet, self-kindness, was reportedly used to counteract body-related distress, and only by those with a positive body image. Most participants with negative body image engaged in self-judgment, with some expressing a fear of self-kindness. Despite being acknowledged by all, the facet of common humanity was not used for appearance-related affect regulation. Participants showed limited practice of the mindfulness facet. Together, the findings show that scope remains for achieving reductions in body image distress, and corresponding gains in resilience, through self-compassion interventions.

拥有积极的身体形象有助于青少年和新兴成年人的心理健康。保护一个人的身体形象免受外表威胁的一种方法是采取自我同情的观点。这项研究探讨了晚期青少年和新兴成年人如何使用自我同情的六个不同方面来应对与外表相关的困扰。在机构审查委员会批准后，对 16 名女性和 14 名男性本科生（M_年龄= 18.77 岁，SD= 1.77 岁），他们报告了正面或负面的身体形象以及高或低的自我同情心。采用描述性/确认性方法，通过基于自我同情的六个方面的先验编码系统对数据进行分析。据报道，只有一个自我同情的方面，自我友善，被用来抵消与身体有关的痛苦，而且只有那些拥有积极身体形象的人才能使用。大多数具有负面身体形象的参与者进行自我判断，有些人表达了对自我友善的恐惧。尽管得到了所有人的认可，但共同人性的一面并未用于与外观相关的情感调节。参与者在正念方面表现出有限的练习。总之，研究结果表明，通过自我同情干预，仍有空间减少身体形象的困扰，并相应地提高弹性。