Compassion Fatigue Among Pre-service Teachers During Online Learning and its Relationship with Resilience, Optimism, Pessimism, Social and Emotional Learning, and Online Learning Efficacy

The phenomenon of compassion fatigue was not only encountered by healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic, but was also experienced by students and teachers during online learning. Compassion fatigue refers to the physical, emotional, and psychological effects of helping others, which, if in excess, can result in burnout. Recent studies have indicated that online learning efficacy, in tandem with social and emotional learning, may mitigate the impact of compassion fatigue. Additionally, since pre-service teachers will be the future of education, it is essential for them to understand the underlying causes of compassion fatigue so that they can be better prepared for future situations. Anchoring on the social cognitive theory and motivation, data collected includes perceptions of social and emotional learning, online learning efficacy, optimism, pessimism, and resilience among pre-service teachers. Using a quantitative approach, a total of 356 pre-service teachers in Taiwan who studied online during the COVID-19 pandemic were surveyed. According to the findings, pre-service teachers experienced moderate to slight compassion fatigue throughout their online learning experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, the findings also revealed moderate to high levels of social and emotional learning. Moreover, regression result shows that compassion fatigue is negatively related to pre-service teachers' resilience, while positively related to pessimism and online learning efficacy. The findings suggest that, contrary to expectations, higher levels of online learning efficacy were associated with increased compassion fatigue. As a consequence, it emphasizes the need for a deeper understanding of the factors contributing to compassion fatigue in online learning environment, encouraging educators and institutions to explore strategies that balance engagement without compromising well-being.