Psychological Capital Protects Social Workers from Burnout and Secondary Traumatic Stress

Abstract

Summary: To counteract the negative consequences inherent to the emotionally demanding professions like social work, we need to advance the understanding of the resources that preserve the employees’ well-being. This study investigated the role of Psychological Capital (PsyCap) in protecting social workers from developing burnout and Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS). The design of the study builds on the job demands-resources model and the conservation of resources theory. A national sample of 193 Romanian social workers participated in the study. We used the structural equation modeling framework for data analysis. We tested two structural models that had burnout as a mediator for the relationship between PsyCap and STS: A partial mediation model and a total mediation model. Findings: The total mediation model was supported by our data suggesting that PsyCap has a protective role against burnout, and subsequently, STS. Moreover, the results indicate that burnout is the critical link between personal resources and STS. Applications: The results of the study contribute to enhancing the protection of the social workers’ well-being in their professional settings, by advancing the knowledge about the resources that need to be developed in order to prevent or reduce the negative job consequences associated with helping professions. As such, increasing PsyCap levels of employees enhance the sustainability of their working conditions.

Psychological Capital, Workload, and Burnout: What’s New? The Impact of Personal Accomplishment to Promote Sustainable Working Conditions

“…The results of this study showed that personal accomplishment has a high and positive relationship with PsyCap [44,45] and less of a weight on burnout dimension, which seems to indicate that personal achievement, traditionally considered a subdimension of burnout, would instead be a personal resource to cope with burnout. These results support the approaches of other authors who consider that exhaustion and depersonalization are the core parts of burnout and that personal accomplishment is not a reaction to stressful situations but an individual resource (personality) that develops largely independently and so has a separate role in burnout [23].…”

“…That is, workers may come to believe that they can perform their jobs adequately and be successful in meeting their work-related goals. Thus, personal accomplishment would reflect the workers' personal characteristics and not their reactions to stressful situations [22,23] so it may be considered not a burnout dimension but an individual resource that develops largely independently of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization [21,24]. Some authors have also considered this idea and have removed the personal achievement dimension from burnout studies [23].…”

“…Thus, personal accomplishment would reflect the workers' personal characteristics and not their reactions to stressful situations [22,23] so it may be considered not a burnout dimension but an individual resource that develops largely independently of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization [21,24]. Some authors have also considered this idea and have removed the personal achievement dimension from burnout studies [23]. Self-efficacy, locus of control, emotional stability, extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, positive affectivity, optimism, and proactive personality show a stronger relationship with personal accomplishment [18,25].…”

The Influence of Psychological Capital on Workplace Wellbeing and Employee Engagement Among Saudi Workforce

“…Empirical studies show that PsyCap is having a significant and enduring influence on employees and their attitude towards work environments (Gibson and Hicks, 2018; Grover, Teo, Pick, Roche, and Newton, 2018; Kun and Gadanecz, 2019). It has the capability to reduce burnout (Vîrgă et al, 2020), enhance wellbeing, and resultant performance (Imran and Shahanawaz, 2020). Related to the "best self", PsyCap comprises of four componentshope, efficacy, Optimism, and Resilience (Luthans and Youssef, 2004).…”

A Proof-of-Concept System Dynamics Simulation Model of the Development of Burnout and Recovery Using Retrospective Case Data

“…The experts confirmed that a more holistic, systemic, and dynamic perspective of burnout is missing. Several studies have taken first steps in this direction, for example by identifying “positive gain spirals” [ 22 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 ], which in computational modeling are identified as “positive feedback loops” [ 52 ]. This can be described as the positive relationship between variables—if one variable increases or decreases (the “cause”), the other variable increases or decreases with it (the “effect”), causing the first variable to increase or decrease even more (the “feedback loop”).…”