The Structure And Mechanism Of Compassion Fatigue

With the development of society, nowadays people pay more and more attention to individual’s mental health. Recent years, various kinds of natural or man-made disasters have occurred frequently in the world. And, not only the mental health of clients, but also the mental health of rescuers are influenced by such disasters. Therefore, the mental health of helpers becomes one of the hot topics in the society besides the mental health of clients. In the1990s, Figley have proposed that compassion fatigue (CF) is the special mental health of helpers. However, the study of CF is very few in China. For getting more attention to the mental health of helpers, and enriching the findings of theoretical and empirical studies of CF in China, this research explores the structure and mechanism of compassion fatigue.With the medical staffs and firefighters as subjects, the method of questionnaire survey is adopted in this research by these cross-sample groups. In Exp1, to explore the structure of CF in Chinese helpers, a survey of four-sample groups (sample1as medical staffs, n=167; sample2as medical staffs, n=265; sample3as firefighters, n=157; sample4as firefighters, n=231) who completed the Chinese version of CF-Short Scale (C-CF-Short Scale) is conducted. In Exp2, to explore the mechanism of CF, namely, the model of mediated moderation which could indicate the effect of empathy, self-resilience and perceived social support on CF, a survey of two-sample groups (sample2as medical staffs, n=265; sample4as firefighters, n=231) who completed the C-CF-Short Scale, the Chinese version of Interpersonal Reactivity Index(C-IRI), the Ego-Resiliency Scale (ERS) and Perceived Social Support Scale (PSSS) is conducted. The detail results are following:(1) In both samples of medical staffs and firefighters, the structure of CF is comprised of secondary trauma (ST) and job burnout (JB); and the C-CF-Short Scale is well applicative for Chinese helpers.(2) In both samples of medical staffs and firefighters, empathy is significant positively associated with CF, and it is also enable to predict CF.(3) In the sample of medical staffs, both self-resiliency and perceived social support are significant negatively correlated with CF; and in the sample of firefighters, self-resiliency is significant negatively correlated with CF, but the correlation between perceived social support and CF is not significant.(4) In both samples of medical staffs and firefighters, the mechanism of CF is conformed to the model of mediated moderation. Besides, there is some difference between medical staffs and firefighters about such model. In the sample of medical staffs, the perceived social support has a moderator effect on and the self-resiliency has a mediator effect on the relation between empathy and CF, meanwhile, the perceived social support has a moderator effect on the relation between self-resiliency and CF; In the sample of firefighters, the perceived social support has a moderator effect on and the self-resiliency has a mediator effect on the relation between empathy and CF, meanwhile, the perceived social support has a moderator effect on the relation between empathy and self-resiliency.Finally, based on the findings of the present and previous researches, and also considered on the ideas of positive psychology and development counseling, this research propose a prevention and intervention model with a core of resilience in the theory, that is, psychological resources model of helpers (PIO-R-IIO model), which as the theoretical basis of eliminating CF and establishing mental health system for helpers. The PIO-R-IIO model can not only provide the theoretical foundation for the mental health model of helpers, but also integrate and develop the ways of mitigating or eliminating CF. Then, it is enable to improve the psychological quality and individual life quality for helpers and enhance the effects of helping.