Psychological distress as a central mediator of suicidal ideation among Brazilian veterinarians: A study of occupational stress, compassion fatigue, coping strategies, and workplace environment using structural equation modeling

Vet World Vol.19 February-2026 Article - 11

Research Article

Veterinary World, 19(2): 604-618

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2026.604-618

Bianca Stevanin Gresele¹, Jefferson Luiz Pereira¹, Alexandre Redson Soares da Silva ², Karen Scavacini³, Helena C. Lyrio-Carvalho¹, Sofia Marques Viana Ulisses⁴, and Anderson da Silva Rosa5⁵

1. Graduate Program in Clinical Psychology, Department of Clinical Psychology, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUC), São Paulo 05015-901, SP, Brazil.

2. Graduate Program in Veterinary Sciences in the Semi-arid Region and College of Veterinary Medicine, Agricultural Sciences Campus, Universidade Federal do Vale do São Francisco (UNIVASF), Petrolina 56304-917, PE, Brazil.

3. Instituto Vita Alere, São Paulo, 04066-002, SP, Brazil. .

4. Graduate School of Education, University of California - Riverside, Riverside 92521, CA, USA.

5. Collective Health Department, Escola Paulista de Enfermagem, Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP), São Paulo 04024-002, SP, Brazil.

Background and Aim: Veterinarians experience disproportionately high levels of psychological distress and suicidal ideation compared with other professional groups. Occupational stress (OS), compassion fatigue, workplace environment (WE), and coping strategies have been identified as relevant risk or protective factors; however, their interrelationships remain insufficiently explored, particularly in Brazil. This study aimed to examine the direct and indirect pathways linking occupational psychosocial factors to suicidal ideation among Brazilian veterinarians working in companion-animal practice, with psychological distress conceptualized as a central mediating mechanism.

Materials and Methods: A nationwide cross-sectional survey was conducted between June and July 2022 involving 1,472 veterinarians exclusively engaged in small animal practice in Brazil. Participants completed validated self-report measures assessing psychological distress (Kessler-6), suicidal ideation, coping strategies, compassion fatigue, OS, and WE. Data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) with 5,000 bootstrap resamples. Direct, indirect, and mediating effects were estimated, and model fit, reliability, and validity were assessed. Ethical approval was obtained from the Research Ethics Committee of Inspirar College (protocol no. 31645220.4.0000.5594).

Results: Psychological distress emerged as the strongest predictor of suicidal ideation (β = 0.40; p < 0.001), explaining 20.6% of its variance. OS showed a substantial positive association with psychological distress (β = 0.47; p < 0.001), followed by compassion fatigue (β = 0.15; p < 0.001) and WE (β = 0.07; p = 0.028). Coping strategies exerted a significant protective effect on psychological distress (β = −0.26; p < 0.001) and suicidal ideation (β = −0.08; p = 0.013). Indirect effects confirmed that psychological distress mediated the associations between OS, compassion fatigue, WE, and suicidal ideation. Younger age and female gender were indirectly associated with higher suicidal ideation through increased psychological distress.

Conclusion: Psychological distress plays a central mediating role in the relationship between occupational psychosocial factors and suicidal ideation among Brazilian veterinarians. Interventions targeting OS reduction, emotional support, and the promotion of adaptive coping strategies may substantially mitigate suicide risk in veterinary clinical practice.

Keywords: compassion fatigue, coping strategies, occupational stress, psychological distress, small animal veterinarians, structural equation modeling, suicidal ideation, workplace environment.

How to cite this article: Gresele B.S., Pereira J.L., Rosa A.S., Lyrio-Carvalho H.C., Ulisses S.M.V., da Silva A.R.S. Psychological distress as a central mediator of suicidal ideation among Brazilian veterinarians: A study of occupational stress, compassion fatigue, coping strategies, and workplace environment using structural equation modeling. Vet World. 2026;19(2):604–618.

Received: 18-09-2025 Accepted: 09-01-2026 Published online: 17-02-2026

Corresponding author: Bianca Stevanin Gresele E-mail: biancastevanin@hotmail.com

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2026.604-618

Copyright: Gresele, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.