We explored whether the guilt mothers of young children feel about engaging in health behaviors mediates the relationship between self-compassion and self-reported engagement in health-promoting behaviors such as physical activity, eating a healthy diet and getting enough sleep. In this online, cross-sectional study, 143 mothers of young children completed measures of self-compassion, guilt about taking time to engage in health-promoting behaviors, trait guilt, health-promoting behaviors, self-esteem, and demographics. Mediation analysis, using Hayes' PROCESS macro showed that mother guilt mediated the relationship between self-compassion and health-promoting behaviors, ß = .05, Bca CI (.0014, .1133) with a bootstrapped standard error of .03 and a 95% confidence interval. Self-compassion may offer mothers a positive way to deal with guilty feelings about looking after their health.
Keywords: Ethics of care; health behaviors; mediation; mothers; self-compassion.