Examining the feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of a self-compassion intervention in physical education class for adolescent girls
Abstract
In adolescence, enrollment in Physical Education (PE) drastically drops in the transition from grade 9 to 10 – particularly for girls who disengage at higher rates than males after completing provincial PE curricular requirements. This is problematic since engagement in PE has the potential to shape young girls’ perceptions of movement, their bodies, and coping with life’s difficulties through physical activity (PA). Body image distress may be one reason to explain PE disengagement and therefore, warrants intervention. Self-compassion (SC) is an emotion regulation strategy that helps deal with body image distress and may be an effective strategy to help girls cope with these negative experiences. The purpose of this pilot study was to examine the feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of a SC psychoeducation intervention in PE. Grade 9 and 10 girls enrolled in PE (n = 72) participated in a pragmatic one-group pre-test post-test design. The intervention consisted of a 60-minute SC workshop and 1-month of homework exercises. There was demonstrated feasibility evidence whereby, all available classes and teachers agreed to host the workshop and most participants completed the pre-survey (97.2% of 72), workshop (79.2% of 72), and group feedback session (66.7% of 72), and homework exercises (18.1% of 72). The intervention demonstrated acceptability as indicated by a range of workshop metrics. As expected in a single-arm pilot study, evidence of preliminary effectiveness was limited, with non-significant pre-post differences and very small effect sizes. The knowledge gained from this study may enhance capacity for delivery of scalable curriculum-informed PE promotion strategies which may be broadly transferrable to PA programs.