Self-compassion and self-efficacy as biopsychosocial resources in healthy aging: Associations with pain, health behaviors, postural awareness, and quality of life

Abstract

Objective This study examined the associations of self-compassion and self-efficacy with geriatric pain, postural awareness, health-promoting lifestyle behaviors, and quality of life in community-dwelling older adults in Turkey. Methods In this cross-sectional study, 280 individuals were screened and 179 adults aged ≥65 years were included in the final analyses. Participants completed validated instruments including the Geriatric Pain Measure, Self-Compassion Scale, Self-Efficacy Scale, Postural Awareness Scale, Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile (HPLP), and quality of life (WHOQOL-BREF). Results Self-efficacy emerged as the most consistent predictor across outcomes. In the hierarchical model predicting quality of life, the final model explained 61.4% of the variance (R² = 0.614); self-efficacy (β = 0.340) was a positive predictor and geriatric pain (β=−0.346) a negative predictor, with health responsibility (β = 0.328) and interpersonal support (β = 0.181) also contributing (all p < 0.05). In the hierarchical models predicting HPLP subdimensions and the total score, the final models explained 21–40% of the variance (R² = 0.21–0.40); self-efficacy was a positive predictor across all subdimensions and the total score, self-compassion was the strongest predictor of nutrition (β = 0.436), and postural awareness was the strongest predictor of stress management (β = 0.300), whereas geriatric pain negatively predicted several domains. For geriatric pain, self-compassion (β=−0.205) and postural awareness (β=−0.212) were significant negative predictors, whereas self-efficacy was not (R² = 0.141). Bivariate associations were consistent with these models: HPLP total score showed the strongest correlation with quality of life (ρ = 0.575), which was also correlated with self-efficacy (ρ = 0.497) and self-compassion (ρ = 0.424); self-compassion was positively correlated with HPLP total score (ρ = 0.411) and self-efficacy (ρ = 0.376) and negatively correlated with geriatric pain (ρ=−0.267) (all p < 0.05). Conclusion Self-efficacy was consistently associated with health-promoting behaviors and quality of life, while self-compassion and postural awareness showed more domain-specific associations with pain and lifestyle behaviors. These findings support a biopsychosocial assessment approach in older adults but do not establish that interventions targeting these resources would improve clinical outcomes.