Most would agree that teaching, while rewarding, can be challenging and stressful. According to a recent report, 58% of Australian teachers either planned or would like to leave teaching (Longmuir et al., 2022). It’s important, then, to be aware of issues that can have a negative impact on staff, and the protective factors.
New research from Monash University, published in the Australian Journal for Education (AJE), explores professional quality of life (ProQoL) among teachers. According to the study, Coping in the classroom: A study of Professional Quality of Life (ProQoL) in Australian teachers, ProQoL comprises 2 constructs: compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue.
As noted in the journal paper (Patrick & Bensley, 2024), teachers are often a primary source of support for students and can therefore be seen as frontline workers when it comes to dealing with the stress and traumatic experiences of those they teach.
When teachers feel equipped to deal with this responsibility, they may experience ‘compassion satisfaction’, which is defined by the experience of pleasure and fulfilment from helping others. On the other end of the spectrum, when teachers feel overwhelmed or burdened by this responsibility, it can lead to ‘compassion fatigue’.
‘It is of the utmost importance that the professional quality of life of teachers is protected as there are many ways in which compassion fatigue could be detrimental to their wellbeing,’ report authors Dr Pamela Patrick and Elizabeth Bensley write.
The symptoms of compassion fatigue are burnout (physical, emotional and mental exhaustion; frustration; reduced sense of achievement) and secondary traumatic stress (STS) – where exposure to first-hand trauma can lead to fear, avoidance, intrusive thoughts and memories of the situation, sleep disturbance and more.
About the study
The report notes that while compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction are well noted and studied among healthcare and mental health workers, they have been understudied in teachers. The authors say, to date, no studies have examined the relationships between coping styles, compassion satisfaction, and compassion fatigue in Australian teachers.
‘Given that compassion fatigue can have negative consequences for the wellbeing of teachers, it is important that more research is devoted to uncovering the risk and protective factors for this phenomenon,’ they write.
The study aimed to address this by determining the different types of coping strategies teachers use (problem-focused, emotion-focused, avoidant) and the correlation of those coping strategies on compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue.
Problem-focused coping strategies include removing the source of the stress and seeking information or assistance to handle the situation. Examples of emotion-focused coping include the use of humour, self-blame, emotional venting, engaging in positive self-talk, and seeking emotional support from others. The third coping style, known as avoidant coping, is where the person tends to use strategies such as denial, minimisation, and procrastination to escape having to deal with stressful situations.
A total of 334 Australian teachers participated in the study. Participants were asked to rate questions about their tendency to use a range of coping strategies, (such as problem solving, seeking advice, expressing feelings, denial, and substance use) from one to 4 (1 = I haven’t been doing this, 2 = a little bit, 3 = a medium amount, 4 = I’ve been doing this a lot).
Participants were also asked a range of questions to assess compassion satisfaction and the 2 facets of compassion fatigue: burnout and STS. Participants were required to rate questions such as ‘I find it difficult to separate my personal life from my life as a teacher’ from one to 5 (1 = Never, 2 = Rarely, 3 = Sometimes, 4 = Often, 5 = Very Often).
The report’s findings
The findings show that teachers who utilised problem-focused coping strategies reported higher levels of satisfaction in their work, while teachers who reported high usage of avoidant coping strategies reported low levels of compassion satisfaction.
Interestingly, this study did not detect a significant relationship between emotion-focused coping strategies and compassion satisfaction in teachers.
Turning to the 2 dimensions of compassion fatigue (burnout and STS), teachers who engaged in high levels of problem-focused coping strategies experienced lower levels of burnout, while teachers who reported engaging in high levels of avoidant coping strategies experienced high levels of burnout.
The study found that problem-focused coping was not a significant predictor of STS. The authors note that one reason for this could be down to the nature of STS, which can develop suddenly after witnessing or hearing about the traumatic events of others, leaving no time for teachers to prepare to cope or put problem-focused strategies in place to minimise the effects of STS.
‘Another potential explanation for why problem-focused coping did not predict STS is that teachers may not be aware of the important role that problem-focused coping plays in protecting their own wellbeing when exposed to trauma,’ the authors write.
‘Teachers are known to display high levels of altruistic behaviour, or actions that place the welfare of others above the self. As such, teachers are likely to be proactive when it comes to solving issues involving other people, particularly their students. Therefore, it is possible that teachers are less ready to engage in problem-focused coping when it comes to their own trauma or exposure to trauma.’
Read the open access report in the Australian Journal of Education, Coping in the classroom: A study of Professional Quality of Life (ProQoL) in Australian teachers, and learn more about its findings here.
References
Longmuir F., Gallo Cordoba B., Phillips M., Allen K. A., Moharami M. (2022). Australian teachers’ perceptions of their work in 2022. Monash University. https://www.monash.edu/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/3061169/Teachers-Perceptions-of-their-Work-2022.pdf
Patrick, P. M., & Bensley, E. (2024). Coping in the classroom: A study of Professional Quality of Life (ProQoL) in Australian teachers. Australian Journal of Education. https://doi.org/10.1177/00049441241297714
At your school, what are the processes for supporting students experiencing trauma? Do all staff members know these processes and where to access help?
What about when it comes to the wellbeing of staff? Do all staff members have practical coping strategies to prevent compassion fatigue? Is there a need for more professional learning in this area?
