Compassion fatigue bland lärare – reliabiliteten för en befintlig skala, dess samband med närliggande koncept samt kopplingen till benägenhet att agera vid mobbningssituationer i skolan

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study was to investigate the psychometric properties of the Compassion Fatigue Inventory (CFI) as a tool for measuring compassion fatigue among teachers. We also examined whether the level of compassion fatigue could predict teachers' propensity to act in a bullying situation. A confirmatory factor analysis was performed, and we found that it provided insufficient support for the three-factor structure presented in previous literature. The CFI showed good reliability (α=0.88) and convergent validity with moderate to strong correlations with scales of mental well-being, professional self-efficacy, school climate, and professional self-care. Additionally, professional self-care and school climate together accounted for 46% of the variance in compassion fatigue. We also compared the results on the CFI for teachers who self-identified with compassion fatigue and those who did not, and found a significant difference. Finally, we conducted a multiple regression analysis indicating that higher scores on the workplace and reduced compassion subscales predicted a lower propensity to act in a bullying situation. These findings provide some support for the validity and reliability of the CFI, but future research should explore the current and alternative factor structures for the scale. Several limitations of the study were discussed, including the construct validity of compassion fatigue. Further research is needed to examine whether compassion fatigue can be distinguished from related constructs such as burnout and secondary traumatization.