An Assessment of Secondary Traumatic Stress in Juvenile Justice Education Workers

Abstract

Given the frequency and violent character of the traumas encountered by juvenile offenders, staff members who regularly interact with juveniles in custody are at risk of developing secondary traumatic stress. Juvenile justice teachers and staff (N = 118) were administered a cross-sectional survey, including the Secondary Traumatic Stress Scale. Respondents said the students were moderately traumatized (47%), severely traumatized (27%), and very severely traumatized (7%). Regarding STS, the most frequently reported symptom was intrusive thoughts related to work with the students, mentioned by 61% of respondents. Additionally, 81% met at least one, 55% met two, and 39% met all three core diagnostic criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder. Recommendations for juvenile justice staff members and for the organization are provided to address practice and policy implications.

Health sciences librarians, patient contact, and secondary traumatic stress

“…More mixed populations appear to have slightly higher overall mean STSS scores [8,9,12]. Interestingly, Warren et al's study of mostly male surgeons had a mean STSS score of 31.7 [10], very close to our sample's 33. However, as previously mentioned, the highest scoring symptom categories are different, which suggests possible gender disparities in the experience of STS.…”

“…Similar mean STSS scores have been reported in other professions with comparable frequency of contact to traumatized individuals, including computer foren sics investigators [8] and forensic interviewers [9]. Like Smith Hatcher et al's attorneys [10], Avoidance was the most prominent symptom category. STS has been observed in a variety of fields, both health care-related and not, with fluctuating scores.…”

“…However, the most common symptom category was Arousal, with the surgeons experiencing symptoms of irritability, sleep difficul ties, and hypervigilance. Attorneys and support staff in a public defender's office also experienced high levels of intrusive thoughts, but the most prominently reported category was Avoidance, with more than half the sample indicating "a sense of foreshortened future" or avoidance of certain clients [10].…”

A Mixed Methods Study of Secondary Traumatic Stress in Labor and Delivery Nurses

“…Twenty‐one percent of social workers whose practice was with survivors of family or sexual violence met the DSM‐IV‐TR criteria for PTSD (Choi, ). In Hatcher, Bride, Oh, King, and Catrett's () sample of juvenile justice teachers, 39% met all the diagnostic criteria. The 26% of L&D nurses in this current study fall in the middle of these rates for social workers and juvenile justice workers.…”

A qualitative analysis of the experiences, training, and support needs of school mental health workers regarding student trauma

“…With the apparent lack of confidence and knowledge of school staff with regard to student trauma, and experiences of secondary traumatic stress and compassion fatigue experienced by mental health and other school personnel (Berger, Abu-Raiya, & Benatov, 2016;Bride, 2007;Smith Hatcher, Bride, Oh, Moultrie King, & Franklin Catrett, 2011), trauma interventions and trauma-informed models in schools have been proposed to inform the response of staff and aid in the recovery of students following trauma. Among evaluated interventions, the Cognitive Behavioural Intervention for Trauma in Schools (CBITS) has been reported to lower symptoms of PTSD and depression among students (Nadeem, Jaycox, Kataoke, Langley, & Stein, 2011).…”