Self-Oriented Empathy and Compassion Fatigue: The Serial Mediation of Dispositional Mindfulness and Counselor's Self-Efficacy

The joint effect of attachment orientations and empathy on compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction among oncologists

OBJECTIVE

Compassion fatigue, which consists of burnout and secondary traumatic stress, and compassion satisfaction are conceptualized as the negative and positive emotional reactions of working in the helping professions. In this study we examined the joint effect of oncologists' attachment orientations and empathy on their compassion fatigue and satisfaction.

METHODS

Seventy-three oncologists completed a demographic questionnaire, the shortened version of the Experiences in Close Relationships scale, the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, and the Professional Quality of Life questionnaire.

RESULTS

A cluster analysis based on empathy and attachment orientations yielded three meaningful clusters that seem to reflect the three attachment orientations: secure, anxious and avoidant. The oncologists in the three clusters differed in their compassion fatigue levels (i.e. both burnout and secondary traumatic stress) and in their compassion satisfaction levels. Secure attachment (i.e. low scores on both anxious attachment and avoidant attachment) along with high levels of the cognitive component of empathy (perspective-taking) resulted in lower levels of compassion fatigue and higher levels of compassion satisfaction than did insecure attachment.

CONCLUSIONS

The study emphasizes the importance of oncologists' attachment orientations and appropriate distance/closeness to their patients in protecting them from compassion fatigue and helping them experience compassion satisfaction.

Mindful Self-Compassion as an Antidote to Burnout for Mental Health Practitioners

The objective of this correlational study was to explore the relationship between levels of self-compassion and burnout for currently practicing mental health practitioners (MHPs) in the United States. All professionals are vulnerable to burnout based on various types of organizational stressors, but burnout is of particular concern for health care service providers who may need to adopt a stance of detachment, or emotional distance, as relief from intense workloads, with clients. The data were collected through an online survey. Regression analysis found that scores from Neff's Self-Compassion Scale were a significant negative predictor of levels of MHP burnout, as assessed by Schaufeli et al.'s Burnout Assessment Tool, p < 0.001. The implication of this finding is that cultivating self-compassion appears to be a pragmatic self-care strategy for MHPs to mitigate the negative effects of burnout. More educational and occupational training in self-compassion practices as self-care should be provided to help protect the physical and emotional well-being of MHPs. The deleterious systemic effects of burnout make MHP self-care an ethical issue, along with the need to identify protective factors, prevention, and treatment of burnout.

Assessment of Counseling Self-Efficacy: Validation of the German Counselor Activity Self-Efficacy Scales-Revised

Background: Many authors regard counseling self-efficacy (CSE) as important in therapist development and training. The purpose of this study was to examine the factor structure, reliability, and validity of the German version of the Counselor Activity Self-Efficacy Scales-Revised (CASES-R). Method: The sample consisted of 670 German psychotherapy trainees, who completed an online survey. We examined the factor structure by applying exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis to the instrument as a whole. Results: A bifactor-exploratory structural equation modeling model with one general and five specific factors provided the best fit to the data. Omega hierarchical coefficients indicated optimal reliability for the general factor, acceptable reliability for the Action Skills-Revised (AS-R) factor, and insufficient estimates for the remaining factors. The CASES-R scales yielded significant correlations with related measures, but also with therapeutic orientations. Conclusion: We found support for the reliability and validity of the German CASES-R. However, the subdomains (except AS-R) should be interpreted with caution, and we do not recommend the CASES-R for comparisons between psychotherapeutic orientations.

Predicting compassion fatigue among psychological hotline counselors using machine learning techniques

During the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019, psychological hotline counselors frequently address help-seekers' traumatic experiences from time to time, which possibly causes counselors' compassion fatigue. The present study aimed to explore the predictors of compassion fatigue among a high-risk population of psychological hotline counselors. Seven hundred and twelve psychological hotline counselors were recruited from the Mental Health Service Platform at Central China Normal University, Ministry of Education, then were asked to complete the questionnaires measuring compassion fatigue, trait empathy, social support, trait mindfulness, counselor's self-efficacy, humor, life meaning, and post-traumatic growth. A chi-square test was utilized to filter for the top-20 predictive variables. Machine learning techniques, including logistic regression, decision tree, random forest, k-nearest neighbor, support vector machine, and naïve Bayes were employed to predict compassion fatigue. The results showed that the most important predictors of compassion fatigue were meaning in life, counselors' self-efficacy, mindfulness, and empathy. Except for the decision tree, the rest machine learning techniques obtained good performance. Naïve Bayes presented the highest area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.803. Random forest achieved the least classification error of 23.64, followed by Naïve Bayes with a classification error of 23.85. These findings support the potential application of machine learning techniques in the prediction of compassion fatigue.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-021-01776-7.