A worthy self is a caring self: Examining the developmental relations between self-esteem and self-compassion in adolescents.

<bold>Objective: </bold>Self-compassion has been framed as a healthy alternative to self-esteem, as it is nonevaluative. However, rather than being alternatives, it may be that the two constructs develop in a mutually reinforcing way. The present study tested this possibility among adolescents.<bold>Method: </bold>A large adolescent sample (N = 2,809; 49.8% female) reported levels of trait self-esteem and self-compassion annually for 4 years. Autoregressive cross-lagged structural equation models were used to estimate the reciprocal longitudinal relations between the two constructs.<bold>Results: </bold>Self-esteem consistently predicted changes in self-compassion across the 4 years of the study, but not vice versa.<bold>Conclusions: </bold>Self-esteem appears to be an important antecedent of the development of self-compassion, perhaps because the capacity to extend compassion toward the self depends on one's appraisals of worthiness. These findings add important insights to our theoretical understanding of the development of self-compassion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]