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Schedule:
Thursday, May 30, 2019
Pacific D/L (Hyatt Regency San Francisco)
* noted as presenting author
Introduction: The U.S. Army has recognized compassion fatigue as a potential concern in caregivers working with wounded warriors, but there has been little research evaluating compassion fatigue among Chaplains serving in the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps (Hayes, 2009). This project examines, through secondary data analysis, several psychosocial markers/physical health indicators of compassion fatigue (including depression and loneliness, as well as decreased engagement, family and marital satisfaction, friendship, spirituality, optimism, and organizational trust) among members of the Chaplain Corps and to determine whether these markers are related to attrition.
Methods: We used the Person-event Data Environment (PDE) to integrate data from the Global Assessment Tool (GAT), Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC), and the Military Health Systems Data Repository (MDR) from 2010 -2016. Chaplains were identified and matched on gender, age, rank, and total amount of time spent in theater (calculated in 6 month increments) to a non-chaplain cohort. A total of 2,068 Soldiers (1,034 Chaplains and 1,034 controls) were included in the study. Differences between Chaplains and controls were evaluated cross-sectionally at each year using t- tests, and longitudinally over time using multi-level modeling; we used survival analyses to look at attrition in the two groups over the study window.
Results: Chaplains scored higher on almost all measures of positive psychosocial and physical health compared to Soldiers in the Non-Chaplain controls. Although Chaplains maintained significantly higher levels of engagement and spirituality across the length of their careers compared to controls, this difference was largest early in their careers and decreased over time, resulting in smaller differences at the end of the study window. Chaplains higher in spirituality were less likely to be lost to attrition. The difference in likelihood of attrition between chaplains with low spirituality and chaplains with high spirituality is greater later in their career, suggesting that, as time goes on, level of spirituality may play a greater role in whether or not Chaplains decide to leave active duty service.
Conclusions: Although our results indicate that Chaplains have more positive indicators of psychosocial functioning and health and are less likely to be lost to attrition, analyses also revealed an interaction between time in service and spirituality, such that levels of spirituality decreased in Chaplains as their years of service increased. This could suggest that risk for developing compassion fatigue may increase the longer Chaplains remain in the Army.
Methods: We used the Person-event Data Environment (PDE) to integrate data from the Global Assessment Tool (GAT), Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC), and the Military Health Systems Data Repository (MDR) from 2010 -2016. Chaplains were identified and matched on gender, age, rank, and total amount of time spent in theater (calculated in 6 month increments) to a non-chaplain cohort. A total of 2,068 Soldiers (1,034 Chaplains and 1,034 controls) were included in the study. Differences between Chaplains and controls were evaluated cross-sectionally at each year using t- tests, and longitudinally over time using multi-level modeling; we used survival analyses to look at attrition in the two groups over the study window.
Results: Chaplains scored higher on almost all measures of positive psychosocial and physical health compared to Soldiers in the Non-Chaplain controls. Although Chaplains maintained significantly higher levels of engagement and spirituality across the length of their careers compared to controls, this difference was largest early in their careers and decreased over time, resulting in smaller differences at the end of the study window. Chaplains higher in spirituality were less likely to be lost to attrition. The difference in likelihood of attrition between chaplains with low spirituality and chaplains with high spirituality is greater later in their career, suggesting that, as time goes on, level of spirituality may play a greater role in whether or not Chaplains decide to leave active duty service.
Conclusions: Although our results indicate that Chaplains have more positive indicators of psychosocial functioning and health and are less likely to be lost to attrition, analyses also revealed an interaction between time in service and spirituality, such that levels of spirituality decreased in Chaplains as their years of service increased. This could suggest that risk for developing compassion fatigue may increase the longer Chaplains remain in the Army.