Changing Kindergarten Teachers’ Mindsets Toward Children to Overcome Compassion Fatigue

Abstract

Introduction

Kindergarten teachers who empathize with toddlers experience a great risk of burnout and emotional disturbance. This is referred to as compassion fatigue, in which teachers’ empathy experience is reduced. This study proposed a moderated mediation model to identify the risks of compassion fatigue and its protective factors for developing evidence-based clinical interventions.

Methods

In this cross-sectional study, self-report measures were administered to 1049 kindergarten teachers to observe their mindsets toward children, motivation for teacher empathy, job stress, social support, and compassion fatigue. The PROCESS macro (SPSS 23.0) was used to assess the moderated mediation model.

Results

The results demonstrated that motivation for teacher empathy mediated the negative relationship between kindergarten teachers’ mindsets toward children and compassion fatigue. Moreover, job stress and social support moderated the relationship between kindergarten teachers’ mindsets toward children and motivation for teacher empathy. However, this effect was not observed in the negative relationship between kindergarten teachers’ mindsets toward children and compassion fatigue.

Conclusion

The proposed moderated mediation model was found to be valid. Furthermore, the study findings have practical implications for developing evidence-based interventions for addressing kindergarten teachers’ compassion fatigue.

Keywords:

• compassion fatigue
• mindsets toward children
• empathic motivation
• kindergarten teachers

Abbreviations

MTE, Motivation for Teacher Empathy; C-CF Short Scale, Chinese version of the Compassion Fatigue Short Scale; CF-kt, Compassion Fatigue for Kindergarten Teachers; CFA, Confirmatory factors analysis; CI, Confidence interval.

Data Sharing Statement

The datasets generated for this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Ethics Statement

This study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. The local Ethics Committee approved the study.

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to all participants who took part in the current study. We are also grateful to the editors and reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

Author Contributions

All authors made a significant contribution to this work, whether in the conceptualization, methodology, investigation, data analysis, and interpretation stage, or in all these areas; took part in writing, revising or critically reviewing the article; gave final approval of the version to be published; have agreed on the journal to which the article has been submitted; and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Disclosure

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Funding

The Evaluation System of Curriculum Ideological and Political Teaching Reform in Higher Vocational Colleges Based on the Concept of “Output-Oriented (OBE)”(The 14th Five-Year Higher Education Teaching Reform Project of Zhejiang Education Department, Zhejiang Education Letter (2021) No.47), the Exploration and Practice of Ideological and Political Path of Professional Courses of Higher Vocational Education for “Two Generations Inheritance”(Curriculum Ideology and Politics of Zhejiang Province in 2022, Zhejiang Education Letter (2022) No.51), and the Curriculum Reform and Classroom Teaching Innovation Project in Jinhua Polytechnic: Exploring the Path of Curriculum Reform in Preschool Education from the Perspective of Competition Promotion Teaching–Taking “Observation and Guidance of Children’s Behavior” as an Example.