Assessing Teaching Compassion, Work Engagement and Compassion Fatigue Among Teachers During the Pandemic

Abstract

Introduction

Teachers’ mental health is an imperative aspect in ensuring their appropriate cognition, behaviors and perception. Studies have reported mixed results on work engagement and compassion fatigue among employees in different time and cultures. This study assesses and examines the correlation between Chinese teachers’ work engagement and compassion fatigue during the pandemic.

Methods

An online questionnaire was designed through a Chinese data collection platform (Credamo), and the sample of 3147 teachers in Zhejiang province (China) completed the survey online. The Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) was used to measure teachers’ work engagement (WE), while the Professional Quality of Life Scale version 5 (ProQoL-5) was used to measure teachers’ compassion fatigue (CF). SPSS 25, PROCESS Macro of SPSS, and JASP were used to analyze the data.

Results

The results indicated a negative correlation between teachers’ work engagement and compassion fatigue in general, while particularly, vigor, dedication, and absorption negatively correlated with burnout (r = −0.370, r = −0.243, and r = −0.220 respectively), but positively correlating with secondary traumatic stress (r = 0.489, r = 0.343, and r = 0.319).

Discussion

Teachers’ working experience positively correlates with their work engagement but negatively correlates with their compassion fatigue.

Conclusion

Teachers’ work engagement (ie, dedication) is important in reducing compassion fatigue and maintaining compassion satisfaction.

Keywords:

• work engagement
• compassion fatigue
• vigor
• dedication
• absorption
• burnout

Ethics Statement

Ethics approval was granted by the Ethics Committee of Zhejiang Normal University’s College of Teacher Education (Protocol code: 20210069) approved in 2021.04.01.

Acknowledgments

Authors appreciate the contribution and support from the Teachers College of Education, Zhejiang Normal University, specifically from the psychology department. Respondents who willingly filled out the questionnaires, especially teachers, parents, and students, we appreciate their time and efforts.

Author Contributions

All authors contributed to data analysis, drafting or revising the article, have agreed on the journal to which the article will be submitted, gave final approval of the version to be published, and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31871124).