Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation
 

Early Childhood Teachers’ Compassion Fatigue: The Roles of Adverse Childhood Experiences and Supportive Relationships with Leaders and Co-Teachers

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https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/xs55mk94m

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  • Compassion fatigue is a common struggle that helping professionals face; however, it is not yet well understood in early childhood teachers. Compassion fatigue results from caring for individuals who have had traumatic experiences, which can cause physical and emotional exhaustion, leading to a diminished ability to empathize with individuals in one’s care. It is important to identify factors that may affect teachers’ risk for compassion fatigue because it not only impacts the individual through the development of physical and emotional symptoms, but also their interactions with children. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) may increase an individual’s vulnerability to compassion fatigue (Nelson-Gardell et al., 2003) through long-lasting effects on an individual’s emotion regulation (Poole et al., 2018). Research is also needed to identify how workplace resources (i.e., leader and co-teacher support) may reduce the risk of early childhood teachers developing compassion fatigue. This study examined how early childhood teachers’ ACEs and perception of leader and co-teacher support may affect early childhood teachers’ compassion fatigue. Participants were 49 early childhood teachers from home-based, center-based, and Head Start early learning programs. In this small sample, ACEs, leader support, and co-teacher support were not significantly associated with compassion fatigue. More research is needed to identify personal and work environment characteristics related to compassion fatigue that could be targeted in future interventions to improve the well-being and performance of early childhood teachers.
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