Child Abuse & Neglect 30 (2006) 1067–1069

Invited Commentary

Compassion fatigue, burnout, and compassion satisfaction:

Implications for retention of workers
Diane DePanfilis
University of Maryland School of Social Work, 525 W. Redwood Street, Baltimore, MD 20121, USA
Available online 29 September 2006

Keywords: Burnout; Retention; Child welfare workforce

The quality of service delivery in response to child maltreatment is significantly affected by the ability
of organizations to recruit and retain competent, committed staff (Alwon & Reitz, 2000; Pecora, Briar, &
Zlotnik, 1989). Implementing the requirements of the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997, strategic
responses to class action lawsuits, agencies’ efforts to achieve accreditation, and states’ efforts to address
the Program Improvement Plans (PIP) resulting from their federal Child and Family Services Reviews have
brought renewed urgency to recruitment and retention problems in child protection related organizations
(Zlotnik, DePanfilis, Daining, & Lane, 2005). Prior research has suggested that both organizational
factors (e.g., better salary, supervisory support, reasonable workload, coworker support, opportunities for
advancement) and personal factors (e.g., professional commitment to children and families, previous work
experience, education, job satisfaction, efficacy, personal characteristics, role overload/conflict stress, and
burnout, including emotional exhaustion which is a component of burnout most linked to turnover) affect
the decisions made by child protection staff to stay or not stay in service organizations (Zlotnik et al., 2005).
The purpose of the Conrad and Kellar-Guenther (2006) study in this issue of the Journal was to
understand better the risk of compassion fatigue (the trauma suffered by the helping professional) and
burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced sense of personal accomplishment), and
the potential for compassion satisfaction (the fulfillment from helping others and positive collegial rela-
tionships) among child protection staff in Colorado. In this study, approximately 50% of child protection
staff suffered from high or very high levels of compassion fatigue, but the risk of burnout was considerably
lower. Participants with high compassion satisfaction had lower levels of compassion fatigue and lower
levels of burnout. Overall, more than 70% of staff expressed a high or good potential for compassion
satisfaction. Based on the findings from this study, the authors believe that compassion satisfaction may
help mitigate the effects of burnout.

0145-2134/$ – see front matter © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2006.08.002
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This study is important as it highlights the conditions under which staff might experience compassion
fatigue but not burnout thereby providing suggestions for strategies that could foster job satisfaction
in spite of the stress associated with work in child protection agencies. Prior research comparing staff
members who stay or express intent to stay in child welfare jobs suggest that workers who stay have lower
levels of emotional exhaustion (Cahalane & Sites, 2004) and staff who leave or express an intention to
leave their jobs have higher levels of burnout (Dickinson & Perry, 2002).
While the findings of the Conrad and Kellar-Guenther (2006) study are somewhat inconsistent with
prior research, it is possible that their more specific focus on compassion fatigue and compassion satis-
faction and how those constructs relate to burnout, advance the understanding of the complex interplay
between personal and organizational factors that affect the climate of child protection work, and the
eventual impact on the individual employee.
In their implications, Conrad and Kellar-Guenther (2006) suggest that access to social support and
having opportunities to process the traumatic aspects of the day to day work may be important factors
in helping workers overcome the stressful aspects of child protection work. These recommendations
are consistent with prior research that suggests that workload impacts burnout when social support is
low (Koeske & Koeske, 1993) and the availability of social support decreases burnout (Um & Harrison,
1998). Similarly, the findings of Lewandowski (2003) that suggest that increased isolation increases frus-
tration, which in turn may increase burnout on the job also are consistent with the findings of Conrad
and Kellar-Guenther (2006), which suggest that levels of compassion satisfaction are related to lower
levels of burnout. Taken together, these findings suggest the need for managers to create organizational
conditions to help workers process the negative impact of daily job stress and to deal specifically with
the secondary trauma associated with involvement in child abuse and neglect cases on a regular basis.
Future research should examine the specific benefits of policies and procedures and other strategies
that may reduce burnout among child protection staff and increase job satisfaction and retention. Stud-
ies should be designed with tight control (i.e., random assignment to receive specific strategies or not
receive specific strategies) and to follow employees over time to consider both short- and long-term
outcomes.
Furthermore, it is important to explore the specific connections and pathways between emotional
exhaustion, compassion fatigue, compassion satisfaction, burnout, and retention in child protection work.
Researchers should use standardized measures and advanced statistical procedures to explore the complex
relationships among relevant factors. Use of structural equation modeling, for example, might increase
the understanding about the complex relationships between these varied constructs. By using structural
equation modeling, Drake and Yadama (1996) found that depersonalization on the job was related to
emotional exhaustion and that emotional exhaustion was related to job exit. Findings from studies such
as these can point to the optimal timing when organizational strategies might be beneficial to address
both compassion fatigue and burnout.

References

Alwon, F., & Reitz, A. (2000). The workforce crisis in child welfare. Child Welfare League of America: Washington, DC.
Annie E. Casey Foundation. (2003). The unsolved challenge of system reform: The condition of the frontline human services
workforce. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Cahalane, H., & Sites, E. W. (2004). Is it hot or cold? The climate of child welfare employee retention. Unpublished manuscript,
University of Pittsburgh.
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Conrad, D., & Kellar-Guenther, Y. (2006). Compassion fatigue, burnout, and compassion satisfaction among Colorado child
protection workers. Child Abuse & Neglect, 30, 1071–1080.
Dickinson, N. S., & Perry, R. E. (2002). Factors influencing the retention of specially educated public child welfare workers.
Evaluation Research in Child Welfare, 15(3–4), 89–103.
Drake, B., & Yadama, G. N. (1996). A structural equation model of burnout and job exit among child protective services workers.
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Zlotnik, J. L., DePanfilis, D., Daining, C., & Lane, M. M. (2005). Factors influencing retention of child welfare staff: A systematic
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