Mrnalini Ranganathan and Meera S Neelakantan
CHRIST (Deemed to be University) Bengaluru
Pages:, 312-326
Teachers are the helping professionals in Education. The common characteristics of
helping professionals are attributed to Compassion and Empathy. There are positive
and negative components of Compassion and Empathy known as Compassion
Satisfaction, Compassion Fatigue, Empathic Concern, and Empathic distress.
Compassion Fatigue is considered a misnomer by neuroscience and is divided into
Burnout and Secondary Traumatic Stress. Literature review revealed that these
components influence teacher’s mental health and well-being. The sample consisted
of 151 school teachers across India. Multiple Regression analysis showed that
Compassion Satisfaction, Burnout, and Personal Distress significantly predicted Mental
Well-being. The components of compassion significantly predicted mental well-being
than empathy implying the need to promote compassion among teachers. Educational
settings should focus on promoting school teachers’ mental well-being in addition to
improving students’ mental health and academic outcomes since teachers’ mental
well-being, compassion, and empathy levels will impact their students’ mental health.