The Effects of Counselors’ Trauma Counseling Experience and Empathy on Vicarious Trauma: The Differential Effects of Cognitive, Affective, and Attitudinal Empathy and Differences Among Clusters

Objectives The purposes of this study were to investigate how the factors of empathy-cognitive empathy, affective empathy and attitudinal empathy would influence vicarious trauma among counselors. Methods A study was conducted with 174 counselor experienced in trauma counseling to measure cognitive empathy, affective empathy, attitudinal empathy, and vicarious trauma. Regression analysis and cluster analysis were performed using SPSS 22.0. Results First, cognitive empathy was found to have no significant effect on vicarious trauma. Second, affective empathy had a positive significant effect on vicarious trauma. Third, attitudinal empathy had a negative significant effect on vicarious trauma. Lastly, cluster analysis revealed four groups, including Dominant Attitudinal Empathy, Overall Low Empathy, Overall High Empathy, and Dominant affective Empathy Dominant. The Dominant Attitudinal Empathy group scored lower on the vicarious trauma scale compared to the Overall High Empathy and Domiant Affective Empathy Dominant groups. These results suggest that affective empathy may contribute to vicarious trauma in counselors. Conclusions Counselors with high affective empathy may be more vulnerable to vicarious trauma, whereas those with high attitudinal empathy may experience less vicarious trauma.