Changing Kindergarten Teachers' Mindsets Toward Children to Overcome Compassion Fatigue

Fangyan Chen; Yabo Ge; Wenjun Xu; Junshuai Yu; Yiwen Zhang; Xingjian Xu; Shuqiong Zhang

doi:10.2147/PRBM.S398622

Changing Kindergarten Teachers' Mindsets Toward Children to Overcome Compassion Fatigue

Psychol Res Behav Manag. 2023 Feb 22:16:521-533. doi: 10.2147/PRBM.S398622. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Fangyan Chen¹, Yabo Ge^{1

2}, Wenjun Xu¹, Junshuai Yu¹, Yiwen Zhang¹, Xingjian Xu¹, Shuqiong Zhang¹

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Child Development, Jinhua Polytechnic, Jinhua, People's Republic of China.
² College of Teacher Education, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, People's Republic of China.

Abstract

Introduction: Kindergarten teachers who empathize with toddlers experience a great risk of burnout and emotional disturbance. This is referred to as compassion fatigue, in which teachers' empathy experience is reduced. This study proposed a moderated mediation model to identify the risks of compassion fatigue and its protective factors for developing evidence-based clinical interventions.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, self-report measures were administered to 1049 kindergarten teachers to observe their mindsets toward children, motivation for teacher empathy, job stress, social support, and compassion fatigue. The PROCESS macro (SPSS 23.0) was used to assess the moderated mediation model.

Results: The results demonstrated that motivation for teacher empathy mediated the negative relationship between kindergarten teachers' mindsets toward children and compassion fatigue. Moreover, job stress and social support moderated the relationship between kindergarten teachers' mindsets toward children and motivation for teacher empathy. However, this effect was not observed in the negative relationship between kindergarten teachers' mindsets toward children and compassion fatigue.

Conclusion: The proposed moderated mediation model was found to be valid. Furthermore, the study findings have practical implications for developing evidence-based interventions for addressing kindergarten teachers' compassion fatigue.

Keywords: compassion fatigue; empathic motivation; kindergarten teachers; mindsets toward children.

Grants and funding

The Evaluation System of Curriculum Ideological and Political Teaching Reform in Higher Vocational Colleges Based on the Concept of “Output-Oriented (OBE)”(The 14th Five-Year Higher Education Teaching Reform Project of Zhejiang Education Department, Zhejiang Education Letter (2021) No.47), the Exploration and Practice of Ideological and Political Path of Professional Courses of Higher Vocational Education for “Two Generations Inheritance”(Curriculum Ideology and Politics of Zhejiang Province in 2022, Zhejiang Education Letter (2022) No.51), and the Curriculum Reform and Classroom Teaching Innovation Project in Jinhua Polytechnic: Exploring the Path of Curriculum Reform in Preschool Education from the Perspective of Competition Promotion Teaching–Taking “Observation and Guidance of Children’s Behavior” as an Example.