Morgan Leeder¹, Jordan Sutcliffe², Luc J. Martin¹

Compassion has been positioned as an important construct across a range of domains, and has garnered recent attention within the field of sport psychology. Self-compassion has been at the forefront of this research, with other-focused compassion (i.e., compassion one gives and receives from another) remaining largely unexplored. For instance, considering that the broader concept of compassion has been positioned as an antecedent to psychologically safe sport environments, it is interesting to note the general omission of other-focused compassion within the process. The purpose of this proposed study, then, is to explore how other-focused compassion is perceived and experienced between athletes in relation to its contribution towards psychological safety. Using a two-phase qualitative approach, 10 to 15 men and women Canadian University athletes from interdependent sport teams will be asked to participate in guided audio diaries followed by semi-structured interviews. The audio diaries will elicit in-depth reflections concerning experiences of other-focused compassion between teammates over a three-week span, immediately following team practices and competitions. The interviews will then encourage athletes to reflect on their audio diaries and provide opportunities to discuss their perceptions in greater detail. Both audio diary and interview data will be analyzed using Braun and Clarke’s (2019) reflexive thematic analysis. Theoretically, the findings will extend our understanding of other-focused compassion and explore its implications for important emergent states such as psychological safety. Practically, the findings may guide targeted efforts to foster compassionate behaviours between teammates, and in turn, promote psychologically safe sport environments.