title: Personal factors related to compassion fatigue in health professionals.
abstract: This study examines the role of some personal and professional factors in compassion fatigue among health-care professionals. Research participants included 182 (89 mental and 93 medical) health-care professionals who completed an assessment battery measuring compassion fatigue, emotion management, trait emotional intelligence, situation-specific coping strategies, and negative affect. Major findings indicate that both self-report "trait" emotional intelligence and ability-based emotion management are inversely associated with compassion fatigue; adaptive coping is inversely related to compassion fatigue; and differences exist between mental and medical professions in emotional intelligence, coping strategies, and negative affect. Furthermore, problem-focused coping appears to mediate the association between trait emotional intelligence and compassion fatigue. These findings shed light on the role of emotional factors in compassion fatigue among health-care professionals. Beyond enhancing our knowledge of practitioners' professional quality of life, the current study serves as a basis for the early identification of groups of practitioners at risk for compassion fatigue.
authors.affiliation: a Laboratory for Research in Personality, Emotions, and Individual Differences , University of Haifa , Israel.
authors.forename: Moshe
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zeidner
authors.forename: Dafna
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hadar
authors.forename: Gerald
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Matthews
authors.forename: Richard D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Roberts
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000523:psychology; D002055:Burnout, Professional / Q000523:psychology*; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D056348:Emotional Intelligence; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008605:Mental Health Services; D008875:Middle Aged; D010820:Physicians / Q000523:psychology*