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

Frontiers in Psychology

Dilana Hazer-Rau¹  Guangrong Jiang²  Zhihong Ren²  Congrong Shi²  Yifei Yan²  Chunxiao Zhao²  Lin Zhang²  Lizu Lai² 

[1] Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Medical Psychology, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany;Key Laboratory of Adolescent Cyberpsychology and Behavior, Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Human Development and Mental Health of Hubei Province, School of Psychology, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China;

关键词: self-oriented empathy;    compassion fatigue;    mindfulness;    counselor’s self-efficacy;    serial-mediation model;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2020.613908

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

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.

【 授权许可】

CC BY