Liens entre les compétences émotionnelles, les difficultés de régulation émotionnelle et la qualité de vie professionnelle des psychologues médico-légaux francophones

Objectives

Despite being less recognized as a specific subdomain of Psychology in French-speaking countries, forensic psychologists do face the same challenges as their Anglo-Saxon counterparts. Among these, the literature identifies the quality of life in the workplace, which can be divided into Compassion Satisfaction, and Compassion Fatigue, the latter being composed of Burn-out and Secondary Traumatic Stress. Previous research has acknowledged the role of emotional competence, especially the management of emotions, as a central factor of healthcare professionals’ relationship with their work assignments. However, Pirelli and collaborators recently highlighted the lack of empirical research among forensic psychologists. As an answer to their call, this study investigates the association and predictive factors of emotional competence, difficulties in emotional management, and the quality of professional life.

Materials and methods

An online survey (Lime Survey) was used to collect data regarding socio-demographic variables such as age, gender, years of experience, and training. The following self-questionnaires were then given to the subjects: Profile of Emotional Competence, Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, and Professional Quality of Life. Descriptive, correlational, and regressive analyses were undertaken to, respectively: (1) describe our sample and compare it to available norms (Student's t), (2) associate (Bravais-Pearson r) the mean scores of the three scales, and (3) evaluate the prediction (simple and multiple linear regression) of emotional competence and emotional dysfunction on the quality of professional life. These predictions were then reversed. Both regression analyses used the backward method.

Results

The sample was composed of 44 French-speaking forensic psychologists (79.50% female), median age 34.20 (SD = 7.96). They were mainly trained in clinical psychology (84.10%), followed by forensic psychology (18.20%). The majority of the sample worked as carceral psychologists (59.10%), and their main missions were support and guidance (78.70%), followed by recidivism risk assessment (52.30%) and crisis management (50.00 %). Descriptive results. The participants exhibited significantly higher emotional dysfunction scores (total score, p ≤ .001; Lack of Emotional Clarity, p = .10; Impulse Control Difficulties,p ≤ .001; Difficulties Engaging in Goal-Directed Behavior,p ≤ .001) when compared to available norms. Regarding their perceived quality of life, all scores were either significantly lower or higher based on the norms used. A similar analysis was not possible for emotional competence as available norms were gender-specific, and the sample gender distribution was clearly unbalanced. Associations and regression relations were confirmed between emotional competence, emotional dysfunction, and the quality of professional life, especially between Compassion Satisfaction and emotional competence (r = .33–.56) on the one hand and between Burn-out and emotional dysfunction on the other hand (r = .41–.65). Unexpectedly, Secondary Traumatic Stress was only predicted by emotional dysfunction (Impulse Control Difficulties, β = .39, t = 2.71, R² = .13, p = .010).

Conclusions

Taken as a whole, the results indicate that (a) Compassion Satisfaction and Burn-out are key elements to assess in the workplace, confirming previous studies among other health professionals, and (b) although correlated to specific emotional dysfunction such as Difficulties Engaging in Goal-Directed Behaviors and Impulse Control Difficulties, none of these factors predict nor is predicted by Secondary Traumatic Stress.