Abstract
This study aimed to explore the association between self-oriented empathy and compassion fatigue, and examine the potential mediating roles of dispositional mindfulness and the counselor’s self-efficacy. A total of 712 hotline psychological counselors were recruited from the Mental Health Service Platform at Central China Normal University, Ministry of Education during the outbreak of Corona Virus Disease 2019, then were asked to complete the questionnaires measuring self-oriented empathy, compassion fatigue, dispositional mindfulness, and counselor’s self-efficacy. Structural equation modeling was utilized to analyze the possible associations and explore potential mediations. In addition to reporting confidence intervals (CI), we employed a new method named model-based constrained optimization procedure to test hypotheses of indirect effects. Results showed that self-oriented empathy was positively associated with compassion fatigue. Dispositional mindfulness and counselor’s self-efficacy independently and serially mediated the associations between self-oriented empathy and compassion fatigue. The findings of this study confirmed and complemented the etiological and the multi-factor model of compassion fatigue. Moreover, the results indicate that it is useful and necessary to add some training for increasing counselor’s self-efficacy in mindfulness-based interventions in order to decrease compassion fatigue.
Highlights
Compassion fatigue (CF) is an empathetic reaction resulting from frequently witnessing the emotional or physical suffering of others or repeatedly listening to a person suffering from mental or physical dysfunction (Figley, 2002; Hamilton et al, 2016; Sinclair et al, 2017)
Based on the understanding of the multidimensional construct of empathy, many researchers explored the association between self-oriented empathy and CF, and found that self-oriented empathy was positively associated with CF among nurses (Duarte and Pinto-Gouveia, 2017b), social workers (Thomas, 2013), and healthcare professionals (Hunt et al, 2019)
We focused on selforiented empathy because its association with CF was needed to be examined among hotline psychological counselors, when its positive relationship with CF was found among nurses (Duarte and Pinto-Gouveia, 2017b), social workers (Thomas, 2013), and healthcare professionals (Hunt et al, 2019)
Summary
Compassion fatigue (CF) is an empathetic reaction resulting from frequently witnessing the emotional or physical suffering of others or repeatedly listening to a person suffering from mental or physical dysfunction (Figley, 2002; Hamilton et al, 2016; Sinclair et al, 2017). During the COVID-19 outbreak, psychological counselors in China quickly established several service teams and voluntarily provided hotline professional psychological assistance for individuals impacted by the pandemic (Zhao et al, 2020). Based on the understanding of the multidimensional construct of empathy, many researchers explored the association between self-oriented empathy and CF, and found that self-oriented empathy was positively associated with CF among nurses (Duarte and Pinto-Gouveia, 2017b), social workers (Thomas, 2013), and healthcare professionals (Hunt et al, 2019). The present study aimed to investigate the association between self-oriented empathy and CF among hotline psychological counselors in the context of the COVID19 outbreak, and further explore the roles of mindfulness and context-specific self-efficacy within the association
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