The Relationship Between Empathy and Stress in the Context of Helping Professions
Abstract
Empathy represents an important and complex psychological phenomenon, comprising both affective and cognitive components, and it is fundamental to high-quality care in helping professions. This research aimed to explore the associations between stress (occupational stress and stressful life events) and empathy (both its affective and cognitive components) across various groups of helping professionals (doctors, special educators and rehabilitators, and psychologists), compared to individuals employed in non-helping professions (i.e., engineers). A total of 243 participants completed self-reported online questionnaires. Significant differences in empathy scores were found between helping and non-helping professionals on the cognitive empathy scale, with helping professionals scoring higher. Participants did not differ significantly in terms of occupational stress levels or the number of stressful life events, but respondents from helping professions rated their life events as more severe than those in non-helping professions. Our hypothesis—that experiences of stress could predict empathy levels in helping professionals—was confirmed with respect to affective and global empathy. The severity of stressful life events emerged as the most relevant stress-related variable in predicting empathy, especially its affective component. The implications of these findings, as well as recommendations for future research, are discussed.
References
Antinienė, D., & Lekavičienė, R. (2015). Empathy and its factors: Empirical study. Baltic Journal of Sport and Health Sciences, 4(99), 8–15. https://doi.org/10.33607/bjshs.v4i99.97
Chakrabarti, B., & Baron-Cohen, S. (2006). Empathizing: Neurocognitive developmental mechanisms and individual differences. Progress in Brain Research, 156, 403–417. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0079-6123(06)56022-4
Decety, J., & Jackson, P. L. (2004). The functional architecture of human empathy. Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews, 3(2), 71–100. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534582304267187
Derksen, F., Bensing, J., & Lagro-Janssen, A. (2013). Effectiveness of empathy in general practice: A systematic review. The British Journal of General Practice, 63(606), e76–e84. https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp13X660814
Dollard, M., Dormann, C., Boyd, C. M., Winefield, H. R., & Winefield, A. H. (2003). Unique aspects of stress in human service work. Australian Psychologist, 38(2), 84–91. https://doi.org/10.1080/00050060310001707087
Dvash, J., & Shamay-Tsoory, S. G. (2014). Theory of mind and empathy as multidimensional constructs. Topics in Language Disorders, 34(4), 282–295. https://doi.org/10.1097/tld.0000000000000040
Elliott, R., Bohart, A. C., Watson, J. C., & Murphy, D. (2018). Therapist empathy and client outcome: An updated meta-analysis. Psychotherapy, 55(4), 399–410. https://doi.org/10.1037/pst0000175
Ferme, C. (1981). A Study of the Relationship Between Life Events and Empathy (Unpublished master’s thesis). Eastern Illinois University Repository.
Figley, C. R. (Ed.) (1995). Compassion Fatigue: Coping with Secondary Traumatic Stress Disorder in Those Who Treat the Traumatized (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203777381
Finset, A. (2010). Emotions, narratives and empathy in clinical communication. International Journal of Integrated Care, 10(5), 53–56. https://doi.org/10.5334/ijic.490
Grant, L., & Kinman, G. (2014). Emotional resilience in the helping professions and how it can be enhanced. Health and Social Care Education, 3(1), 23–34. https://doi.org/10.11120/hsce.2014.00040
Guidi, C., & Traversa, C. (2021). Empathy in patient care: From “clinical empathy” to “empathic concern”. Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy, 24(4), 573–585. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-021-10033-4
Hannigan, B., Edwards, D., & Burnard, P. (2004). Stress and stress management in clinical psychology: Findings from a systematic review. Journal of Mental Health, 13(3), 235–245. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638230410001700871
Hassanzadeh, A., Heidari, Z., Feizi, A., Hassanzadeh Keshteli, A., Roohafza, H., Afshar, H., & Adibi, P. (2017). Association of stressful life events with psychological problems: A large-scale community-based study using grouped outcomes latent factor regression with latent predictors. Computational and Mathematical Methods in Medicine, 2017, Article 3457103. https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/3457103
Hodges, S. D., & Wegner, D. M. (1997). Automatic and controlled empathy. In: W. J. Ickes (Ed.), Empathic Accuracy (pp. 311–339). New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
Hoffman, S., Palladino, J. M., & Barnett, J. (2007). Compassion fatigue as a theoretical framework to help understand burnout among special education teachers. Journal of Ethnographic & Qualitative Research, 2, 15–22.
Holmes, T. H., & Rahe, R. H. (1967). The social readjustment rating scale. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 11(2), 213–218. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-3999(67)90010-4
Irving, P., & Dickson, D. (2004). Empathy: Towards a conceptual framework for health professionals. International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, 17(4), 212–220. https://doi.org/10.1108/09526860410541531
Kellner, M. E. (2001). Emergency Medical Professionals Experiencing Healthcare Re-Structure: Coping, Empathy, and Spirituality in Relation to Work-Stress (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). California School of Professional Psychology–Berkeley/Alameda.
Kinman, G., & Grant, L. (2016). Enhancing empathy in the helping professions. In: D. F. Watt & J. Panksepp (Eds.), Psychology and Neurobiology of Empathy (pp. 297–319). New York: Nova Biomedical Books.
Lambert, M. J., & Barley, D. E. (2001). Research summary on the therapeutic relationship and psychotherapy outcome. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 38(4), 357–361. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-3204.38.4.357
Larson, E. B., & Yao, X. (2005). Clinical empathy as emotional labor in the patient–doctor relationship. JAMA, 293(9), 1100–1106. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.293.9.1100
Lim, D., & DeSteno, D. (2016). Suffering and compassion: The links among adverse life experiences, empathy, compassion, and prosocial behavior. Emotion, 16(2), 175–182. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000144
Lifton, R. J. (1967). Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima. New York: Random House.
Marcatto, F., Di Blas, L., Luis, O., Festa, S., & Ferrante, D. (2022). The perceived occupational stress scale: A brief tool for measuring workers’ perceptions of stress at work. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 38(4), 293–306. https://doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759/a000677
Mather, L., Blom, V., & Svedberg, P. (2014). Stressful and traumatic life events are associated with burnout: A cross-sectional twin study. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 21(6), 899–907. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12529-013-9381-3
Mercer, S. W., & Reynolds, W. J. (2002). Empathy and quality of care. The British Journal of General Practice, 52(Suppl S), S9–S12.
Neumann, M., Bensing, J., Mercer, S., Ernstmann, N., Ommen, O., & Pfaff, H. (2009). Analyzing the “nature” and “specific effectiveness” of clinical empathy: A theoretical overview and contribution towards a theory-based research agenda. Patient Education and Counseling, 74(3), 339–346. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2008.11.013
Park, K. H., Kim, D. H., Kim, S. K., Yi, Y. H., Jeong, J. H., Chae, J., Hwang, J., & Roh, H. R. (2015). The relationships between empathy, stress and social support among medical students. International Journal of Medical Education, 6, 103–108. https://doi.org/10.5116/ijme.55e6.0d44
Reniers, R. L. E. P., Corcoran, R., Drake, R., Shryane, N. M., & Völlm, B. A. (2011). The QCAE: A questionnaire of cognitive and affective empathy. Journal of Personality Assessment, 93(1), 84–95. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223891.2010.528484
Selmanović, S., Ramić, E., Pranjić, N., Brekalo-Lazarević, S., Pasić, Z., & Alić, A. (2011). Stress at work and burnout syndrome in hospital doctors. Medicinski arhiv, 65 (4), 221–224. https://doi.org/10.5455/medarh.2011.65.221-224
Staub, E., & Vollhardt, J. (2008). Altruism born of suffering: The roots of caring and helping after victimization and other trauma. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 78(3), 267–280. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014223
Stebnicki, M. A. (2000). Rehabilitation stress and grief reactions among rehabilitation professionals: Dealing effectively with empathy fatigue. Journal of Rehabilitation, 66(1), 23–29.
Stefanello, E. (2022). Your pain is not mine: A critique of clinical empathy. Bioethics, 36(5), 486–493. https://doi.org/10.1111/bioe.12980
Tedeschi, R. G., Park, C. L., & Calhoun, L. G. (Eds.). (1998). Posttraumatic Growth: Positive Changes in the Aftermath of Crisis. New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781410603401
Tei, S., Becker, C., Kawada, R., Fujino, J., Jankowski, K. F., Sugihara, G., Murai, T., & Takahashi, H. (2014). Can we predict burnout severity from empathy-related brain activity? Translational Psychiatry, 4(6), e393. https://doi.org/10.1038/tp.2014.34
Utvić, B. (2009). Stresna vrednost životnih događaja: Treća eksploracija u dvadeset kritičnih godina (odbranjen diplomski rad). Filozofski fakultet, Beograd.
Wahjudi, J. W., Findyartini, A., & Kaligis, F. (2019). The relationship between empathy and stress: A cross-sectional study among undergraduate medical students. Korean Journal of Medical Education, 31(3), 215–226. https://doi.org/10.3946/kjme.2019.132
Wang, Y., Ramos, A., Wu, H., Liu, L., Yang, X., Wang, J., & Wang, L. (2015). Relationship between occupational stress and burnout among Chinese teachers: A cross-sectional survey in Liaoning, China. International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health, 88(5), 589–597. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-014-0987-9
Wilkinson, H., Whittington, R., Perry, L., & Eames, C. (2017). Examining the relationship between burnout and empathy in healthcare professionals: A systematic review. Burnout Research, 6, 18–29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burn.2017.06.003
Yu, C. L., & Chou, T. L. (2018). A dual route model of empathy: A neurobiological prospective. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, Article 2212. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02212
Zaki, J., & Ochsner, K. N. (2012). The neuroscience of empathy: Progress, pitfalls and promise. Nature Neuroscience, 15(5), 675–680. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3085
Zenasni, F., Boujut, E., Woerner, A., & Sultan, S. (2012). Burnout and empathy in primary care: Three hypotheses. The British Journal of General Practice, 62(600), 346–347. https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp12X652193
Zhang, Z. (2022). Toward the role of teacher empathy in students’ engagement in English language classes. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, Article 880935. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.880935
The details about the publication policy, including copyright and licensing, are available at: