Self-esteem and self-compassion represent well-known positive self-resources with significant implications for life outcomes of people belonging to individualistic and collectivistic cultures, respectively. Both the constructs have been suggested to shape the nature and extent of self-forgiveness through dissimilar mechanisms. The study examined the mediating role of positive and negative self-compassion between the relationship between self-esteem and self-forgiveness. Employing a convenient sampling, 144 male (M = 22.10, SD = 1.66) and 124 female participants (M = 21.98, SD = 1.90) were chosen for a correlational research design. The findings showed that Self-Esteem and Positive Self-Compassion had significant positive correlations with Self-Forgiveness. Conversely, Negative Self-Compassion exhibited negative correlations with these measures. Self-esteem and Positive Self-Compassion accounted for significant positive variance in Realization & Reparation and Overall Self-Forgiveness and significant negative variability in Attribution. Negative Self-Compassion accounted for positive significant variance in Guilt and negative significant variability in Realization & Reparation and Attribution. Both Positive and Negative Self-Compassion significantly mediated the relationships among Self-Esteem and Realization & Reparation, Guilt and Attribution. It evinced coexistence and working of self-esteem and self-compassion in a collectivistic culture with more pronounced effects of the later. Re-conceptualization of self-compassion is recommended.

Keywords                                        

self-esteem; positive and negative self-compassion; self-forgiveness; mediation analysis; path analysis.