Caring for students with disabilities: a SEM analysis of compassion fatigue, emotional regulation, and professional resilience among Saudi special education teachers

Introduction: This study investigated the relationships between compassion fatigue, emotional regulation, and professional resilience in Saudi special education teachers, examining how these factors influence the quality of care for students with disabilities within the context of Saudi Arabia's ongoing inclusive education reforms under Vision 2030. Methods: Drawing on a nationally diverse sample of 412 special education teachers from six regions of the Kingdom, we examined how work demands and personal resources shape key professional outcomes through psychological mechanisms relevant to teacher well-being and instructional effectiveness within a rapidly reforming institutional and policy environment. A structural modeling approach was used to analyze validated measures of work demands, personal resources, compassion fatigue, emotional regulation, professional resilience, professional efficacy, and job satisfaction. Results: < 0.001) but did not significantly predict job satisfaction. Compassion fatigue partially mediated the relationship between work demands and resilience, accounting for 45.3% of the variance, while emotional regulation partially mediated the relationship between personal resources and resilience, accounting for 37.6% of the variance. Sequential mediation pathways indicated that professional efficacy is shaped primarily through teachers' psychological resilience rather than through general job satisfaction. Discussion: These findings suggest that supporting teachers' psychological well-being is fundamental to ensuring high-quality care for students with disabilities and to the sustainability of inclusive education initiatives in Saudi Arabia. From a policy and practice perspective, the results highlight the importance of integrating emotional regulation training, workload management, and resilience-building programs into teacher professional development frameworks to support the successful implementation of inclusive education reforms within the Saudi educational system. Future research should use longitudinal and experimental designs to study these relationships' causal dynamics. Comparative multi-context studies are also recommended to evaluate the model's generalizability across educational systems and institutional policy settings.