Burnout as a mediator between personal distress and compassion satisfaction among Thai mental health professionals

To investigate whether burnout mediates the association between personal distress and compassion satisfaction after adjustment for age and sex.

Mental health professionals who had direct contact with patients and >6 months of work experience were invited to complete an online survey using convenience sampling through social media groups across Thailand between 25 August 2023 and 25 October 2023. Personal distress was assessed using the Personal Distress subscale of the Thai version of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index. Burnout and compassion satisfaction were measured using the Burnout and Compassion Satisfaction subscales of the Thai version of the Professional Quality of Life Scale, version 5. Mediation analyses were conducted. Age and sex were entered as covariates. Indirect effects were estimated using 5000 bootstrap resamples.

In total, 96 women and 32 men (mean age, 36.4 years) were included in the analysis. Among the participants, 55.5% were psychologists, and 40.6% worked in Bangkok. Personal distress was positively correlated with burnout (r = 0.50, p < 0.001) and negatively correlated with compassion satisfaction (r = -0.31, p < 0.001), whereas burnout was negatively correlated with compassion satisfaction (r = -0.62, p < 0.001). In mediation analyses, higher personal distress was associated with higher burnout (B = 0.479, p < 0.001). Higher burnout was associated with lower compassion satisfaction (B = -0.643, p < 0.001). In the total-effect model, higher personal distress was associated with lower compassion satisfaction (B = -0.313, p = 0.002). When burnout was included in the model, the direct effect of personal distress on compassion satisfaction became non-significant (B = -0.006, p = 0.952). Bootstrap analyses demonstrated an indirect effect of personal distress on compassion satisfaction through burnout (B = -0.308, 95% confidence interval = -0.443 to -0.186). Age was negatively associated with burnout (B = -0.111, p = 0.003) and positively associated with compassion satisfaction (B = 0.102, p = 0.012).

Burnout appeared to mediate the association between personal distress and compassion satisfaction among Thai mental health professionals. Higher levels of personal distress were associated with greater burnout, which in turn was associated with lower compassion satisfaction.