The Curvilinear Empathy–Secondary Traumatic Stress Relationship: The More Empathy, the Better?

Abstract

Empathy refers to understanding other people’s feelings and seeing things from their point of view. In healthcare, it bridges the self and the other, which is crucial for an effective therapeutic relationship. Nevertheless, previous studies on the relationship between empathy and mental health have found contradictory results. This may be because they captured different aspects of a curvilinear relationship between empathy and mental health indicators (e.g., secondary traumatic stress (STS)). The present study explored the existence of a complex (curvilinear or nonlinear) relationship between empathy and STS among emergency medicine (EM) physicians. It also aimed to examine the moderating role of empathy in posttraumatic growth (PTG)–STS and burnout–STS relationships. A total of 120 EM physicians working in Turkey were reached through an online survey. Of the participants, 60 (50.0%) were female, and 66 (55.0%) had ten years or less of professional experience. The mean age was 35.10 (6.20) years. The findings here illustrate a curvilinear relationship between empathy and STS. While moderate empathy was optimal and related to less STS, empathy moderated the PTG–STS and burnout–STS relationships. Thus, moderate empathy seems beneficial for physicians. Moreover, mindfulness-based interventions and self-care promotion can help to prevent empathy-based stress at work. Future research should investigate the complex and dynamic relationship between empathy and STS over time and in diverse samples.