Empathy, Professional Quality of Life and Stress Coping Strategies Among Dental Hygienists—A Cross-Sectional Study

IF 1.2 4区医学 Q3 DENTISTRY, ORAL SURGERY & MEDICINE

International journal of dental hygiene Pub Date : 2026-09-29 Epub Date: 2026-04-16 DOI:10.1111/idh.70070

Nir Uziel, Efrat Gilon, Alina Haj, Ilana Eli

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Introduction

Dental hygienists work in a stressful environment and often experience substantial personal distress, which can adversely affect their empathy as well as their professional quality of life. The present study attempted to evaluate stress coping strategies and their effect on empathy, burnout, compassion satisfaction and secondary traumatic stress among dental hygienists.

Methods

A cross-sectional online survey was conducted using the following self-report questionnaires (i) Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy for Health Professionals (JSPE-HP); (ii) professional quality of life questionnaire (ProQoL) to measure burnout, compassion satisfaction and secondary traumatic stress; and (iii) Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations—Situation Specific Coping inventory (CISS-SSC) to measure task-focused coping, emotion-focused coping and avoidance focused coping strategies.

Results

127 hygienists responded. Subjects' empathy could be best predicted by task-oriented coping style and burnout (stepwise linear regression, R² = 0.19, p < 0.01.). Subjects' burnout could be best predicted by emotion-focused coping style, empathy and age (R² = 0.346, p < 0.001.), their level of secondary traumatic stress could be best predicted by emotional-focused coping (R² = 0.283, p < 0.001) and level of compassion satisfaction could be best predicted by task-focused coping style, emotion-focused coping style and professional experience (R² = 0.315, p < 0.01).

Conclusion

Findings suggest that in the dental hygiene profession, coping styles play a significant role in empathy and the different aspects of subjects' professional quality of life. While task-coping style positively affects subjects' empathy, emotion-focused coping causes dental hygienists to be more vulnerable to secondary traumatic stress and burnout.

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口腔卫生员共情、职业生活质量与压力应对策略的横断面研究。

简介：牙科保健师在压力很大的环境中工作，经常会经历大量的个人痛苦，这可能会对他们的同理心以及他们的职业生活质量产生不利影响。本研究旨在探讨压力应对策略对口腔卫生员共情、倦怠、同情满意度和继发性创伤应激的影响。方法：采用以下自我报告问卷进行横断面在线调查：(1)杰弗逊医师共情量表（JSPE-HP）；（ii）职业生活质量问卷（ProQoL）测量职业倦怠、同情满意度和继发性创伤应激；（三）压力情境应对量表——情境特定应对量表（csis - ssc），用于测量以任务为中心的应对、以情绪为中心的应对和以回避为中心的应对策略。结果：127名卫生员回复。任务导向的应对方式和职业倦怠最能预测被试共情（逐步线性回归，R2 = 0.19, p 2 = 0.346, p 2 = 0.283, p 2 = 0.315, p）结论：研究结果表明，在口腔卫生职业中，应对方式对共情和被试职业生活质量各方面均有显著影响。任务型应对方式对被试的共情能力有积极影响，而情绪型应对方式使牙科卫生员更容易受到二次创伤压力和倦怠的影响。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

International journal of dental hygiene DENTISTRY, ORAL SURGERY & MEDICINE-

CiteScore

4.00

自引率

8.30%

发文量

审稿时长

>12 weeks

期刊介绍： International Journal of Dental Hygiene is the official scientific peer-reviewed journal of the International Federation of Dental Hygienists (IFDH). The journal brings the latest scientific news, high quality commissioned reviews as well as clinical, professional and educational developmental and legislative news to the profession world-wide. Thus, it acts as a forum for exchange of relevant information and enhancement of the profession with the purpose of promoting oral health for patients and communities. The aim of the International Journal of Dental Hygiene is to provide a forum for exchange of scientific knowledge in the field of oral health and dental hygiene. A further aim is to support and facilitate the application of new knowledge into clinical practice. The journal welcomes original research, reviews and case reports as well as clinical, professional, educational and legislative news to the profession world-wide.