Abstract
Compassion fatigue is well documented among professionals working in social service fields such as healthcare, emergency response, social work, and education. In higher education, there is a growing demand for faculty led student mental health support and life coaching services to support student retention and success. Students in online settings tend to disclose personally traumatic experiences and circumstances more openly in communications with faculty to seek support and extensions. In this study, we surveyed faculty to explore the relationship between student self-disclosure and faculty compassion fatigue in online classrooms. We hypothesized that student self-disclosure of personal challenges is common and may be related to faculty compassion fatigue and burnout. Results supported the hypothesis that student self-disclosure of personal challenges and trauma was common, experienced by 96% of surveyed faculty. Most faculty had low to average compassion fatigue scores; however, demographic and professional factors were associated with faculty compassion fatigue and burnout. Younger faculty, less experienced faculty, and female faculty had higher levels of compassion fatigue and burnout than older faculty, more experienced faculty, and male faculty. This study provides insight into the personal challenges and trauma students self-disclose to faculty, faculty variables that are associated with disclosure, and the impact student disclosure may have on faculty.Keywords: online teaching, compassion fatigue, student support, self-disclosure, faculty training
Highlights
Compassion fatigue is well documented among professionals working in social service fields such as healthcare, emergency response, social work, and education
Compassion fatigue is a psychological phenomenon defined as vicarious traumatization or secondary traumatization (Figley, 1995) that results from the emotional strain of exposure to working with those suffering from the consequences of traumatic events
We present results from an online faculty survey examining compassion fatigue among online faculty members, identifying the prevalence of online faculty compassion fatigue, the prevalence of student self-disclosure, and demographic factors that might play a role in online faculty compassion fatigue
Summary
The expectation for faculty members to invest emotional labor in their teaching is well documented (see reviews in Bellas, 1999; Lawless, 2018; Meier, 2005; Moore et al, 2010; Tunguz, 2016). For online faculty members online institutions may not have the same opportunity to observe in-person warning signs and may not have the same referral staff available to help students with these types of personal challenges (Barr, 2014) Given that those in medical or social services positions who are trained to support trauma victims struggle with compassion fatigue, the increasing tendency to rely on untrained faculty as counselors and life coaches in online settings has the potential to result in compassion fatigue among faculty. Women faculty members are perceived as more approachable and empathetic (Bachen, 1999; Feldman, 1993) Studies have found they have higher emotional labor expectations compared to male faculty members (El-Alayli et al, 2018; Lawless, 2018, Tunguz, 2014), which suggests that sex differences are an important variable in the study of self-disclosure and compassion fatigue among faculty. We predicted that female faculty members may be more often subjected to self-disclosure due to perceptions that women are more approachable and empathetic
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