Does Empathy Predict Instructional Assignment-Related Stress? A Study in Special and General Education Teachers

Abstract

The role of empathy in the teaching profession has been vastly investigated in relation to its effect on students, but research on how teachers' empathy affects their own well-being at work is limited. This study investigated empathy and instructional assignmentrelated stress factors of primary school teachers serving in general or special education; moreover, it investigated if empathy predicted instructional assignment-related stress. Data were collected from 190 primary school teachers using the Interpersonal Reactivity Index and the Inventory of Job-related Stress Factors. Teachers reported moderately high levels of perspective-taking and empathic concern and lower levels of fantasising and personal distress. Also, they reported moderate to low levels of stress regarding instructional assignment-related factors. General and special education teachers did not differ in their reported scores on empathy or stress-related factors. Finally, it was found that instructional assignment-related stress factors can be predicted by personal distress and fantasising; however, the core empathy skills (empathic concern and perspective taking) were not found to be strong predictors of the stress factors tested.

The Case for Special Education Teacher Wellbeing: A Multidimensional Review of the Evidence and Future Directions

“…Professional development with an emphasis on curriculum, school administration or human resources has long been the focus of attention within education (Wessels & Wood, 2019). Prominent within existing literature is the significance of deliberately fostering and enhancing the capacity of SE teachers and accompanying systems to effectively identify and acknowledge distinct emotional intricacies inherent in their profession (Olagunju et al, 2021;Platsidou & Agaliotis, 2017;Rae et al, 2017;Womack & Monteiro, 2023;Xu et al, 2023). Rae et al (2017) proposed educating SE teachers on emotional literacy, with the goal of fostering successful teacher-pupil relationships in all areas of learning.…”

“…Stress is a natural response to job demands such as workload and time pressures (Brunsting et al, 2014;Cancio et al, 2018;Platsidou & Agaliotis, 2008), whereas burnout has been described as the result of chronic stress, resulting in a state of physical and emotional exhaustion (Carroll et al, 2022;McDowell, 2017;Riley, 2014). There is a distinction in the literature between teacher stress, burnout and wellbeing where teacher wellbeing is conceptualised not as an absence of stress but rather the creation of an environment supportive of teachers' emotional and physical needs (Cancio et al, 2018;Hester et al, 2020;Kaynak, 2020;Kim & Lim, 2016;Platsidou & Agaliotis, 2017;Wessels & Wood, 2019). There has been much focus on SE teacher burnout and stress within educational research and how to best mitigate these factors to boost wellbeing (Brunsting et al, 2014;Cancio et al, 2018;Herman et al, 2023;Hester et al, 2020;Kiel et al, 2016), further perpetuating the myth of wellbeing as an absence of stress and burnout.…”

Teacher Empathy and Inclusive Education: the Moderating Role of Emotional Self-efficacy and Gender.

“…The few studies involving teachers showed that high levels of empathy were associated with stress in both mainstream and special school teachers [18] and that the affective aspect of empathy in particular was a predictor of teacher stress [19]. Teachers dealing with students with special educational needs are at risk of developing empathy fatigue [16], especially when dealing with students with mental health problems [20].…”