The Devil Is in the Details: How Clergy Tasks Became Stressors During COVID-19

Abstract

COVID-19 presented a difficult environment for care workers, including clergy, as they sought to address human needs within an often-contentious culture. Unique tasks heightened counseling responsibilities, and management of strained relationships introduced new or enhanced stressors into their jobs. Care worker stressors can lead to compassion fatigue. This study aimed to examine clergy’s unique tasks and stressors during COVID-19 to ascertain causal paths toward compassion fatigue. The results of the structural equation analysis demonstrated role and occupational stressors fully mediated the path from tasks to compassion fatigue. The indication was that it was not administrative tasks (e.g., accommodating health measures, adapting the delivery of ministry) nor care tasks (e.g., providing support and counseling to family and patients of COVID-19 victims) that directly caused compassion fatigue; rather, it was the criticism, conflict, and relationship stressors encountered during the ministry that led to compassion fatigue. Implications and recommendations for clergy and administrative development to mitigate and manage role stress and clergy occupational distress are presented. Overall, the study provides insight into the mechanisms by which clergy job demands during COVID-19 led to compassion fatigue, pointing to stressors as the key mediating factors.