Compassion fatigue in teachers: Introduction to a novel concept and findings from a study in Swedish teachers

Compassion fatigue (CF) in teachers is a novel concept with potentially high relevance in relation to the work-life demands on teachers today, and the associated challenges of long-term well-being and work-life satisfaction for the profession. CF was originally studied in mental health settings and captures the possible adverse effects on professionals’ empathic capacity and ability to care for clients, that can be compromised by working closely with traumatized patients and patients with complex needs and difficulties.

CF has recently received attention in research on teachers, notably there was a recent systematic review published that summarizing the current literature in relation to teachers (Ormiston et al., 2022). The review concludes that CF in teachers can be defined as “a reduced empathic capacity from being exposed to students’ experiences (including student trauma histories) and a reduced sense of self-efficacy to respond to the trauma (due to multiple exposures or because of inadequate personal and/or systemic resources), that can reduce a teacher’s job satisfaction and performance” (p. XX). Findings also include that that teachers appear to experience compassion fatigue much in the same way as other helping professions, and that it might be common. There have also been recent theoretically based conclusions suggesting that the concept has utility and impact on both individual teachers, as well as whole school well-being (Paterson et al., 2021). Hence, CF is not only useful to describe and understand the experiences of individual teachers, but it also introduces viable strategies for support and management at the organizational level.

In this presentation, we will give a brief literature overview of the concept of CF and the current findings in relation to teachers. We will also present some preliminary data from our recent study examining CF in 270 Swedish primary and secondary school teachers. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first Swedish study of its kind. Results will include the rates of CF in the sample, as well as its association to different teacher demographics, and related constructs (such as school climate, teacher’s professional self-efficacy, teachers’ professional self-care, teachers’ well-being).

We will discuss the relevance of CF and our findings in light of the challenges facing teachers and teacher training today and in the future. We will also outline possibilities for further research on CF in the Swedish context. Finally, we give some suggestions and ideas for self-care strategies, and strategies for supporting teachers that could be readily implemented.