The purpose of this study was to investigate whether spiritual intelligence and intrinsic motivation can act as antecedents to compassion fatigue. This study will prove useful to pastors who wish to lower the levels of burnout and secondary traumatic stress that stem from their work in ministry. The study reviews a sample of 273 South African pastors across four denominations and demonstrates partial support for relationships between spiritual intelligence and intrinsic motivation with not only compassion fatigue, but also its factors of burnout and secondary traumatic stress. The two factors of compassion fatigue do, however, both relate positively to critical existential thinking and negatively with personal meaning production, therefore suggesting that different elements of spiritual intelligence play varying roles in reducing or aggravating compassion fatigue. Burnout can be reduced through increased intrinsic motivation to work in the ministry, and so this study provides recommendations to assist pastors in overcoming compassion fatigue.
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