Introduction: Compassion fatigue is a psychological syndrome, comprised of secondary traumatic stress (STS) and burnout (BO), which can adversely affect those who work in caring professions. Caring for sick and dying animals, together with exposure to cases of neglect and abuse, has been reported to make people who work with animals vulnerable to this condition, although volunteers are less well studied. In this study we investigated compassion fatigue risk in a large online sample of paid and volunteer animal carers, examined the extent to which perceived job demands predicted compassion fatigue, and explored the impact of several variables expected to moderate any relationship between job demands and compassion fatigue.
Methodology: An international sample of 559 paid and volunteer animal carers (32 males, 523 females, 4 non-binary) completed on-line, self-report questionnaires measuring compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction, job demands and resources, personal resources, emotional intelligence, social support and self-compassion.
Main Results: Participants reported predominantly average risk levels for both main components of compassion fatigue and there were no significant differences in risk levels between paid and volunteer animal carers (average risk level for STS for paid workers=71% and for volunteers=68%, F(2,525)=2.845, p=.059; average risk level for BO=83% for paid workers and 70% for volunteers F(2,523)=2.478, p=.085). There were, however, significant, positive correlations between perceived job (paid or volunteer) demands and both STS (r=.44, p=<.001) and BO (r=.49, p=<.001). Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that job demands predicted 18% and 17% of the variance in STS and BO after controlling for age, involvement with euthanasia, and hours spent in the animal care role (STS F change (1, 197)=47.46, p<.001; BO F change (1, 197)=43.46, p<.001). Strong negative relationships were identified between BO and self-compassion, emotional intelligence and compassion satisfaction.
Principal Conclusions and Implications for Field: We showed that perceived job demands are an important risk factor for compassion fatigue in people who care for animals in paid or volunteer roles. This may assist organisations, employees and volunteers to reduce risk of compassion fatigue by focusing interventions on reducing job demands.