Compassionate Work Environments and Their Role in Teachers’ Life Satisfaction: The Contribution of Perceived Collective School Performance and Burnout

Abstract

Several studies on helping professionals showed the protective role of compassion among colleagues and leaders. Despite this, studies on well-being factors at school, both preventive and protective, usually focus on teachers’ personal resources and study compassion in the teacher–student relationship. This study explores the role of received compassion at work on teachers’ life satisfaction while considering perceived school collective performance and burnout conditions as mediators in this link. One hundred and eighty-six Italian teachers (female = 85.4%, mean age = 48.5, SD = 9.46) completed a questionnaire on received compassion at work, perceived school collective performance, burnout, and life satisfaction. Through a structural equation model (χ2(21) = 30.716, p = 0.08, CFI = 0.989, TLI = 0.981, RMSEA = 0.050 (90% CI = 0.000–0.080, p = 0.465), SRMR = 0.038), it emerged that only perceived school collective performance mediated the association between received compassion and life satisfaction. To the best of our knowledge, few studies have addressed the role of compassion received from colleagues and supervisors at school and its effect on teachers’ work-related beliefs and personal well-being.