Assessment of Compassion Fatigue and Psychological Well-Being of Special Needs Children’s Educators in Enugu State

Abstract

The study was carried out to assess the level of compassion fatigue and psychological well-being of special needs educators. It adopted a cross-sectional survey design. The sample for the study was 416 special needs educators. The compassion fatigue subscale of the Professional Quality of Life scale (ProQOL) was used to assess compassion fatigue in the dimensions of burnout and secondary traumatic stress. Psychological well-being was measured using Ryff’s Psychological Well-being scale in the dimensions of autonomy, environmental mastery, positive relationship with others, purpose in life, personal growth and self-acceptance. Frequency and percentage were used to analyse the descriptive data while Pearson’s correlation was used to determine the relationship between variables. From the result, the majority (87.7%) of the respondents were females and 81.5% were between the age of 20-40 years. The majority (97.3%) of the respondents had moderate level compassion fatigue in both dimensions of burnout and secondary traumatic stress. About a quarter (24.7%) of the respondents reported a low level of psychological well-being. Psychological well-being dimensions of positive relationships with others and purpose in life were found to negatively correlate with secondary traumatic stress, while environmental mastery and purpose in life had a positive relationship with burnout among the special educators. Therefore, the study concludes that special needs educators experience compassion fatigue at a moderate level. The study recommends that there should be an increase in the social support rendered to special needs educators as this could encourage them more in executing their duties.