Professional support, efficacy beliefs, and compassion fatigue in principals during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Abstract

Guided by the social cognitive theory and job demands-resources model, we used multiple regression analyses to examine the concurrent and interactive influences of professional support and efficacy beliefs on compassion fatigue during COVID-19 among 231 school principals in California. Controlling for principals' individual- and school-level demographic factors, professional support and their district collective efficacy (but not self-efficacy) were significantly and negatively associated with compassion fatigue. The negative association between professional support and compassion fatigue was moderated by both collective and self-efficacy. Professional support had a significantly negative association with compassion fatigue only among principals with both lower collective and self-efficacy beliefs. In addition, female principals reported significantly higher compassion fatigue than their male counterparts. Principals who oversee schools with larger student populations (i.e., 500-1,000 students) reported significantly less compassion fatigue than those who lead smaller schools (i.e., less than 200 students). Findings highlighted the importance of promoting principals' efficacy beliefs and increasing professional support to address their compassion fatigue. Findings also indicated that professional support and efficacy beliefs interact with each other in a compensatory way to influence the principal's compassion fatigue concurrently. Practical implications for school psychologists' capacity to support school leaders' compassion fatigue are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).