•  
  •  
 
Journal of Wellness

Abstract

Introduction: We propose a working model of compassion fatigue resilience by identifying compassion fatigue (CF) and compassion satisfaction correlates as potential targets for building resilience. Further, we explore focusing on pre-professionals as a method of primary prevention of CF.

Methods: The participants were 143 college students who completed self-report measures to assess current CF, self-care behaviors, self-care beliefs, self-esteem, frequency of helping behaviors, and exposure to others under extreme stress.

Results: Notably, hierarchical regression analyses (controlling for helping frequency and exposure to high stress individuals) suggested that self-care beliefs and self-care behaviors contributed to concurrent experiences of CF, through secondary traumatic stress (R2 =.3, F(5,135) = 11.69, p <.001) and burnout (R2 =.4, F(5,135) = 18.08, p <.001), respectively. Self-care behaviors were associated with compassion satisfaction in our regression model, which explained 36.1% of the variance in compassion satisfaction (R2 =.36, F(5,135) = 15.24, p <.001).

Conclusion: Remarkably, we found self-care beliefs as a significant predictor of concurrent CF. In line with prior research on professionals, we found compassion satisfaction to have an inverse relationship with burnout, and found self-care behaviors to predict concurrent compassion satisfaction. Based on our findings, a working model to build resilience to compassion fatigue is proposed (which centers on the importance of both self-care beliefs and self-care behaviors). Resilience promotion should focus on educating individuals about the risks of secondary traumatic stress and burnout prior to starting a career in the helping professions, before patterns of self-care beliefs and behaviors are firmly established.

DOI

10.55504/2578-9333.1100

Plum Print visual indicator of research metrics
PlumX Metrics
  • Citations
    • Citation Indexes: 2
  • Usage
    • Downloads: 1857
    • Abstract Views: 541
  • Captures
    • Readers: 19
  • Social Media
    • Shares, Likes & Comments: 92
see details

Included in

Psychology Commons

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.