The double-edged-sword effect of empathy: The secondary traumatic stress and vicarious posttraumatic growth of psychological hotline counselors during the outbreak of COVID-19

doi:10.3724/SP.J.1041.2021.00992

Abstract

Abstract:

It is of great theoretical and practical significance to pay attention to the mental health of psychological hotline counselors during the epidemic period of 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), and to explore the internal mechanisms of the negative and positive impacts of empathizing with trauma clients for trauma workers. In this study, Participants were 776 counselors (with an average age of 42.57 years and an average counseling experience of 12.44 years) who worked on the online mental health service platform which was established in Central China Normal University by the Ministry of Education (MOE-CCNU) during the epidemic period of COVID- 19 in China. Empathy, mindfulness, searching for meaning, secondary traumatic stress (STS), and vicarious posttraumatic growth (VPTG) were measured by questionnaires. The results of latent variable structural equation model show that: (1) the empathy of counselors positively predicts STS and VPTG; (2) mindfulness partially mediates the relationship between empathy and STS, while searching for meaning partially mediates the relationship between empathy and VPTG; (3) empathy also positively predicts VPTG through the mediating paths of STS, STS-searching for meaning, mindfulness-STS, and mindfulness-STS-searching for meaning, respectively. The results suggest that we should treat the negative and positive effects of empathy dialectically and pay attention to the transformation from negative reactions to positive growth, which can not only deepen the theory of empathy and its influence, but also provide enlightenment for related research and implication.

Key words: empathy, secondary traumatic stress, vicarious posttraumatic growth, COVID-19, mindfulness, searching for meaning

LAI Lizu, REN Zhihong, YAN Yifei, NIU Gengfeng, ZHAO Chunxiao, LUO Mei, ZHANG Lin. (2021). The double-edged-sword effect of empathy: The secondary traumatic stress and vicarious posttraumatic growth of psychological hotline counselors during the outbreak of COVID-19. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 53(9), 992-1002.

Figures/Tables 5

References 72

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Basic Information	Participants
N	776
Gender (female) (%)	80.4%
Age (M ± SD)	42.57 (7.90)
Consulting experience (years) (M ± SD)	12.44 (5.92)
Education level (N, %)
High school/Vocational school	11 (1.4%)
Undergraduate	169 (21.8%)
Master’s degree or doctor’s degree	596 (76.8%)
Trauma history
Yes	315 (40.6%)
No	461 (59.4%)
Number of cases (M ± SD)	11.26 (15.52)
Number of trauma cases (M ± SD)	1.73 (3.76)

Basic Information	Participants
N	776
Gender (female) (%)	80.4%
Age (M ± SD)	42.57 (7.90)
Consulting experience (years) (M ± SD)	12.44 (5.92)
Education level (N, %)
High school/Vocational school	11 (1.4%)
Undergraduate	169 (21.8%)
Master’s degree or doctor’s degree	596 (76.8%)
Trauma history
Yes	315 (40.6%)
No	461 (59.4%)
Number of cases (M ± SD)	11.26 (15.52)
Number of trauma cases (M ± SD)	1.73 (3.76)

Variable	M	SD	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
1. Gender	0.80	0.40	-
2. Age	42.57	7.90	0.03	-
3. VPTG	50.49	24.01	0.05	0.01	-
4. STS	18.04	4.64	0.02	-0.14^***	-0.30^***	-
5. Searching for meaning	22.89	8.27	0.02	-0.17^***	0.23^***	0.23^***	-
6. Empathy	36.13	9.56	-0.04	-0.22^***	0.22^***	0.44^***	0.23^***	-
7. Mindfulness	69.98	9.17	0.09	0.21^***	-0.07^*	-0.51^***	-0.23^***	-0.35^***	-
8. Trauma cases	1.73	3.76	0.01	0.07^*	0.06	-0.01	-0.02	-0.00	0.01	-
9. Total cases	11.22	11.51	0.00	0.06	0.06	0.03	-0.01	-0.03	0.00	0.54^***	-

Variable	M	SD	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
1. Gender	0.80	0.40	-
2. Age	42.57	7.90	0.03	-
3. VPTG	50.49	24.01	0.05	0.01	-
4. STS	18.04	4.64	0.02	-0.14^***	-0.30^***	-
5. Searching for meaning	22.89	8.27	0.02	-0.17^***	0.23^***	0.23^***	-
6. Empathy	36.13	9.56	-0.04	-0.22^***	0.22^***	0.44^***	0.23^***	-
7. Mindfulness	69.98	9.17	0.09	0.21^***	-0.07^*	-0.51^***	-0.23^***	-0.35^***	-
8. Trauma cases	1.73	3.76	0.01	0.07^*	0.06	-0.01	-0.02	-0.00	0.01	-
9. Total cases	11.22	11.51	0.00	0.06	0.06	0.03	-0.01	-0.03	0.00	0.54^***	-

Indirect path	Indirect effect	p	The proportion of indirect effects in total effects (%)	95% confidence interval
Indirect path	Indirect effect	p	The proportion of indirect effects in total effects (%)	Lower limit	Upper limit
Empathy -Searching for meaning -VPTG	0.039	0.005	17.43	0.016	0.073
Empathy -STS -VPTG	0.077	< 0.001	14.39	0.047	0.120
Empathy -STS -Searching for meaning -VPTG	0.009	0.014	9.30	0.003	0.017
Empathy -Mindfulness -STS -VPTG	0.038	< 0.001	7.05	0.023	0.064
Empathy -Mindfulness -STS -Searching for meaning -VPTG	0.004	0.019	4.50	0.001	0.009