Self-esteem and self-compassion

An interesting experiment and study of the interconnections between self-esteem and self-compassion in teenagers showed us some interesting results.

Boy versus girls, in middle school - no difference noted
Boy, middle school versus boy, high school - no difference noted
Girl, middle school versus girl, high school - the later group will feel worse, more stressed out and prone to depression.

After the initial measurements, one test group was instructed in using Mindful Self-compassion techniques. After one year, self-esteem and self-compassion was measured again. Those with high self-esteem has no notable changes, irrelevant of the self-compassion level. Those with low self-esteem, and here came the surprise, has no notable improvements if they had low self-compassion, but high self-compassion seems to protect against the harmful effects of the low self-esteem.

This is a very important observation, making self-compassion a skill desired by all the introverts, teenagers or not.