Understanding the Relationship between Self-Compassion and Interdependent Happiness of the Married Hindu Couples

Abstract

The study examined the relationships among some demographic factors, self-compassion and interdependent happiness of the married Hindu couples. Using a correlational research design, 600 participants (300 couples) were chosen by a snowball sampling. Self-compassion Scale (Neff, 2003b), Socioeconomic Status Scale (Aggarwal et al., 2005) and Interdependent Happiness Scale (Hitokoto & Uchida, 2015) were used to collect data. Findings revealed that some demographic factors such as age, years of marriage and number of family members were positively correlated with self-compassion while the number of children and socioeconomic status were negatively correlated with it. Age, years of marriage and the number of children had a positive relationship with interdependent happiness. Self-compassion evinced a significant positive correlation with the interdependent happiness of the couples. The nature of family and self-compassion accounted for significant variance in the scores of interdependent happiness of the couples. The study constitutes one of the limited studies which assessed the relationships among a set of demographic factors, self-compassion and interdependent happiness on a sample drawn from a collectivistic society. The results have been discussed in the light of extant theoretical and empirical findings of self-compassion and interdependent happiness. The findings may have significant implications for understanding positive life outcomes of people with self-compassion belonging to a collectivistic culture. The theory, practise and policy implications of the findings have been discussed. Directions for future research have also been provided along with some limitations of the study.