Professional quality of life, depression, and meaning in life among helping professionals: The moderating role of self-competence in death work

We examined the moderating role of self-competence in death work, and the relationships of professional quality of life with personal well-being and self-competence in death work. Two hundred helping professionals (mean age = 40.43, 85.5% female) completed a questionnaire. Better professional quality of life (i.e., a higher level of compassion satisfaction and lower levels of burnout and secondary traumatic stress) was associated with better personal well-being and self-competence in death work. Self-competence in death work moderated the negative impact of a lower level of compassion satisfaction on depression. Implications on self-care of helping professionals doing death work are discussed.

Automated summary

This study examined the moderating role of self-competence in death work, as well as the relationships between professional quality of life and personal well-being and self-competence in death work. The results showed that better professional quality of life was associated with higher personal well-being and self-competence. Furthermore, self-competence in death work was found to moderate the negative impact of lower compassion satisfaction on depression. These findings have important implications for the self-care of helping professionals in the field of death work.