Evaluation of Compassion Fatigue and Perceived Organizational Support in Georgia Animal Rescues
Disciplines
Psychology
Abstract (300 words maximum)
Animal rescue volunteers often face emotionally demanding situations, making them vulnerable to compassion fatigue. Compassion fatigue (CF) combines elements of burnout with secondary traumatic stress and can impact an individual’s physical and mental health. We examined the relationship between animal rescue volunteers’ levels of CF and the degree to which they felt valued and supported by the organizations for which they volunteered (Perceived Organizational Support (POS)). We distributed surveys to 104 animal rescue organizations in Georgia, yielding 259 valid responses. Our sample was majority female (88.4%) and White (91.5%), primarily volunteering with dogs (65.3%) and cats (34.0%). The survey combined a Professional Quality of Life Scale (assessing compassion fatigue through subscales of compassion satisfaction, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress) and a shortened and modified POS scale. Our data violated normality assumptions, so we used Kendall’s tau correlation coefficient to analyze the data. Preliminary analysis revealed that POS was partially related to CF, correlating negatively with burnout (τb= -.230, p < .001) and positively with compassion satisfaction (τb= .323, p < .001). However, the analysis also found that POS did not correlate significantly with secondary traumatic stress, (τb= -.041, p = .353). This study is the first to compare levels of CF and POS in animal rescue volunteers. Organizations can use this information to better support their volunteers, leading to increased volunteer retention over time.
Academic department under which the project should be listed
RCHSS - Psychological Science
Primary Investigator (PI) Name
Allison Martin
Evaluation of Compassion Fatigue and Perceived Organizational Support in Georgia Animal Rescues
Animal rescue volunteers often face emotionally demanding situations, making them vulnerable to compassion fatigue. Compassion fatigue (CF) combines elements of burnout with secondary traumatic stress and can impact an individual’s physical and mental health. We examined the relationship between animal rescue volunteers’ levels of CF and the degree to which they felt valued and supported by the organizations for which they volunteered (Perceived Organizational Support (POS)). We distributed surveys to 104 animal rescue organizations in Georgia, yielding 259 valid responses. Our sample was majority female (88.4%) and White (91.5%), primarily volunteering with dogs (65.3%) and cats (34.0%). The survey combined a Professional Quality of Life Scale (assessing compassion fatigue through subscales of compassion satisfaction, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress) and a shortened and modified POS scale. Our data violated normality assumptions, so we used Kendall’s tau correlation coefficient to analyze the data. Preliminary analysis revealed that POS was partially related to CF, correlating negatively with burnout (τb= -.230, p < .001) and positively with compassion satisfaction (τb= .323, p < .001). However, the analysis also found that POS did not correlate significantly with secondary traumatic stress, (τb= -.041, p = .353). This study is the first to compare levels of CF and POS in animal rescue volunteers. Organizations can use this information to better support their volunteers, leading to increased volunteer retention over time.