Compassion fatigue, emotional regulation, frustration tolerance in the therapists working with special needs Children

Abstract

Workload and static circumstances may frustrate those professionals who are serving them diligently and many other circumstances may make them vulnerable to disturbed emotional state. The current study aimed to evaluate the association between compassion fatigue, difficulties in emotional regulation and frustration discomfort. Therefore, a sample of 200 therapists (125 Women) were recruited through convenient sampling strategy. Compassion Fatigue‐Short Scale (CF‐Short Scale; Figley, 1995), Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS-16; Gratz & Roemer, 2004) and Frustration Discomfort Scale (FDS; Harington, 2005) were administered to assess the level of study variables. The findings of the study revealed that there is significant positive association between all the study variables (p < .05). In the mediation analysis, difficulties in emotional regulation was considered as mediating variable between compassion fatigue and frustration discomfort (χ²>.05, 95% CI). This study implicates the need of providing balanced workload and a burnout leave for these therapists after a fixed time interval. This step would improve their performance level significantly while enhancing their compassion and regulating their emotions in a positive manner. Keywords: compassion fatigue, emotional regulation, frustration discomfort, therapists