Determined to change the perception of self-compassion in athletics and athletic performance, researchers in the College of Education developed an online intervention for NCAA athletes to assess the effectiveness of self-compassion on their ability to respond to failure, improve well-being and increase perceived sport performance.
The intervention program RESET (Resilience and Enhancement in Sport, Exercise, & Training) takes a unique approach to teaching self-compassion by adapting language and contextualizing practices to fit within a sports context. Researchers found that RESET not only helped student-athletes improve their ability to cope with challenges, but it also enhanced their sport performance and supported their well-being.
The study, published in the July 2023 issue of Psychology of Sport and Exercise, was the dissertation research of Ashley Kuchar, a recent Ph.D. alumna from the College of Education in the Department of Educational Psychology.
I am deeply passionate about this work and could not be more pleased with the results,
said Kuchar. It is exciting that we found an effective way to bring self-compassion to athletes and to have the research published. I am so grateful to have the opportunity to continue working with athletes, coaches and performers of all levels with Fail Better Training.
Kuchar was co-supervised by Dr. Kristin Neff, associate professor in the Department of Educational Psychology, and Dr. Amber Mosewich, associate professor at the University of Alberta, who also served as co-authors.
Results and details of the study and the Psychology of Sport and Exercise article can be found here.
