TY - JOUR
T1 - Compassion Satisfaction Among Social Work Practitioners
T2 - The Role of Work–Life Balance
AU - Bae, Junghee
AU - Jennings, Porter F.
AU - Hardeman, Christi P.
AU - Kim, Eunhye
AU - Lee, Megan
AU - Littleton, Tenesha
AU - Saasa, Sherinah
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, © 2019 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
PY - 2020/5/3
Y1 - 2020/5/3
N2 - Previous research has established that social work practitioners are especially vulnerable to work-related psychological distress and burnout due to the high-stress nature of the profession, yet less research has focused on examining factors are associated with social worker retention. Emerging research on compassion satisfaction suggests that this factor could mitigate professional burnout, yet there is a gap in research focusing explicitly on examining compassion satisfaction among social workers. To address this gap in knowledge, this quantitative study collected survey data on practicing social workers who were alumni from a large southeastern university (n = 120) to examine individual and organizational factors associated with compassion satisfaction. Multiple regression analyses revealed that higher levels of emotional intelligence, perceived work autonomy, and perceived work–life balance were associated with an increase in compassion satisfaction among experienced, licensed social work practitioners. Findings have implications for how social work employers can promote compassion satisfaction through cultivating emotional intelligence among practitioners, allowing social workers autonomy in decision making, and providing supportive work environments. Recommended directions for future research include longitudinal studies with large sample sizes that expound research on compassion satisfaction by examining the role of additional factors, such as client population, job role characteristics, and supervisor support.
AB - Previous research has established that social work practitioners are especially vulnerable to work-related psychological distress and burnout due to the high-stress nature of the profession, yet less research has focused on examining factors are associated with social worker retention. Emerging research on compassion satisfaction suggests that this factor could mitigate professional burnout, yet there is a gap in research focusing explicitly on examining compassion satisfaction among social workers. To address this gap in knowledge, this quantitative study collected survey data on practicing social workers who were alumni from a large southeastern university (n = 120) to examine individual and organizational factors associated with compassion satisfaction. Multiple regression analyses revealed that higher levels of emotional intelligence, perceived work autonomy, and perceived work–life balance were associated with an increase in compassion satisfaction among experienced, licensed social work practitioners. Findings have implications for how social work employers can promote compassion satisfaction through cultivating emotional intelligence among practitioners, allowing social workers autonomy in decision making, and providing supportive work environments. Recommended directions for future research include longitudinal studies with large sample sizes that expound research on compassion satisfaction by examining the role of additional factors, such as client population, job role characteristics, and supervisor support.
KW - Social work practitioners
KW - compassion satisfaction
KW - emotional intelligence
KW - work autonomy
KW - work–life balance
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85062326640&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85062326640&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/01488376.2019.1566195
DO - 10.1080/01488376.2019.1566195
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85062326640
SN - 0148-8376
VL - 46
SP - 320
EP - 330
JO - Journal of Social Service Research
JF - Journal of Social Service Research
IS - 3
ER -