Associations Between Teachers’ Compassion Satisfaction, Compassion Fatigue, and Trauma Experience with Attitudes Towards Trauma-Informed Care
摘要
Teachers are increasingly faced with supporting trauma-impacted students who may exhibit challenging behaviors and benefit from trauma-informed practices. The present study investigated whether teachers’ compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue (i.e., burnout and secondary traumatic stress), and the extent and valence (i.e., degree of favorable or unfavorable experience) of teachers’ trauma experiences were associated with their attitudes toward trauma-informed care (TIC). Primary and secondary teachers (N = 255) from Australian independent, Catholic, and public schools completed a cross sectional online survey. As hypothesized, hierarchical multiple regression analyses found greater compassion satisfaction and less burnout were significantly associated with more favorable attitudes toward TIC after controlling for school type and education sector. Greater secondary traumatic stress was significantly associated with less favorable attitudes, while contrary to the hypothesis the valence of trauma experiences did not moderate this relationship. Greater extent of experience teaching trauma-impacted students was significantly associated with more favorable attitudes; however, greater professional development and personal experience with trauma were not. The valence of these trauma experiences was not significantly associated with attitudes. To refine understanding of the valence of trauma experiences future research could explore potential differential relationships between both resilience and post-traumatic growth with attitudes. Findings support associations between promotion of teachers’ compassion satisfaction, prevention of compassion fatigue, and favorable attitudes toward TIC in schools. Recommendations include systemic trauma-related professional development and collegial support initiatives.