Open AccessCompassion Fatigue and Psychological Distress Among Social Workers: A Validation Study
Author(s) -
Adams Richard E.,
Boscarino Joseph A.,
Figley Charles R.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
american journal of orthopsychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.959
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1939-0025
pISSN - 0002-9432
DOI - 10.1037/0002-9432.76.1.103
Subject(s) - compassion fatigue , burnout , psychology , scale (ratio) , distress , emotional exhaustion , clinical psychology , compassion , social support , predictive validity , psychological distress , multivariate statistics , mental health , social psychology , psychiatry , physics , quantum mechanics , political science , law , statistics , mathematics
Few studies have focused on caring professionals and their emotional exhaustion from working with traumatized clients, referred to as compassion fatigue (CF). The present study had 2 goals: (a) to assess the psychometric properties of a CF scale, and (b) to examine the scale's predictive validity in a multivariate model. The data came from a survey of social workers living in New York City following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Factor analyses indicated that the CF scale measured multiple dimensions. After overlapping items were eliminated, the scale measured 2 key underlying dimensions—secondary trauma and job burnout. In a multivariate model, these dimensions were related to psychological distress, even after other risk factors were controlled. The authors discuss the results in light of increasing the ability of professional caregivers to meet the emotional needs of their clients within a stressful environment without experiencing CF.