Personal factors related to compassion fatigue in health professionals

Moshe Zeidner, Dafna Hadar, Gerald Matthews, Richard D. Roberts

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

This study examines the role of some personal and professional factors in compassion fatigue among health-care professionals. Research participants included 182 (89 mental and 93 medical) health-care professionals who completed an assessment battery measuring compassion fatigue, emotion management, trait emotional intelligence, situation-specific coping strategies, and negative affect. Major findings indicate that both self-report "trait" emotional intelligence and ability-based emotion management are inversely associated with compassion fatigue; adaptive coping is inversely related to compassion fatigue; and differences exist between mental and medical professions in emotional intelligence, coping strategies, and negative affect. Furthermore, problem-focused coping appears to mediate the association between trait emotional intelligence and compassion fatigue. These findings shed light on the role of emotional factors in compassion fatigue among health-care professionals. Beyond enhancing our knowledge of practitioners' professional quality of life, the current study serves as a basis for the early identification of groups of practitioners at risk for compassion fatigue.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)595-609
Number of pages15
JournalAnxiety, Stress and Coping
Volume26
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2013

Keywords

  • compassion fatigue
  • coping
  • emotional intelligence
  • empathy
  • secondary traumatization

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Developmental and Educational Psychology
  • Clinical Psychology
  • Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
  • Psychiatry and Mental health

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