Identifying risk factors for compassion fatigue in psychologists in Aotearoa, New Zealand

Psychologists work extensively with people experiencing personal and mental health difficulties, providing psychological support and therapeutic interventions. While past research has established that psychologists are at risk of secondary traumatic stress and burnout (together comprising Compassion Fatigue), little is known about the professional and personal circumstances that mitigate their risk. The current study surveyed mental health symptoms and professional quality of life among 149 registered psychologists in Aotearoa, New Zealand (4.1% of the workforce). A broad range of experiences were considered, including psychologists’ symptoms of stress, anxiety, depression, Burnout, Secondary Traumatic Stress, Compassion Satisfaction and resilience, along with contextual factors including caseload, professional support, and personal circumstances, in the second year of the pandemic. LASSO regression was used to identify variables that predicted Compassion Fatigue and Compassion Satisfaction. Although psychologists find their work rewarding and satisfying, our results indicate a high rate of psychological distress and risk of compassion fatigue in our cohort of psychologists, partly associated with increased stress from COVID-19. This study identifies risk factors including COVID related stress, working with clients at risk, and symptoms of stress and anxiety, accounting for 59% of the variance in compassion fatigue. Additional informal supervision support, resilience and increased employer support were predictive of increased Compassion Satisfaction. It is imperative to focus on professional support, personal well-being and manageable caseloads, to ensure a future sustainable psychology workforce.