Secondary traumatisation, burn-out and functional impairment: findings from a study of Danish child protection workers

Abstract

Background: Child-protection workers are at elevated risk for secondary traumatization. However, research in the area of secondary traumatization has been hampered by two major obstacles: the use of measures that have unclear or inadequate psychometric properties and equivocal findings on the degree of associated functional impairment. Objective: To assess the relationship between secondary traumatization and burnout using exploratory structural equation modelling (ESEM) and to assess the relationship between secondary traumatization and functional impairment. Methods: A survey of Danish child-protection workers was conducted through the Danish Children Centres (N = 667). Secondary traumatization was measured using the Professional Quality of Life-5 (ProQoL-5) and burnout using the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory. Results: A three-factor ESEM model provided the best fit to the data, reflecting factors consistent with the structure of secondary traumatization and burnout. The factors were differentially related to trauma-related and organizational variables in ways consistent with existing evidence. All factors were significantly related to functional impairment. Conclusion: The findings supported the discriminant validity of secondary traumatization and burnout while highlighting methodological issues around the current use of sum-score approaches to investigating secondary traumatization. The current study supported the clinical relevance of secondary traumatization by linking it explicitly to social and cognitive functional impairment.

Does personal therapy and supervision protect against burnout and secondary traumatization? A cross-sectional study among Danish child protection workers.

“…CFI = .849, TLI = .834, RMSEA (90% confidence interval [CI]) = .059 [.055, .063], SRMR = .063. Previous research has demonstrated that secondary traumatization and burnout can be modeled as separate constructs and however, also that several cross-loadings between items measuring secondary traumatization and burnout exist and that a CFA model assuming zero cross-factor loadings therefore may be too restrictive when modeling the constructs statistically (Louison Vang et al, 2020). Modification indices indeed suggested that including cross-factor loadings in the model could substantially improve model fit.…”

“…Modification indices indeed suggested that including cross-factor loadings in the model could substantially improve model fit. A total of eight cross-factor loadings were therefore included in the model, seven based on the size of the modification index (>10) and whether previous research has supported the cross-factor loading (Louison Vang et al, 2020), and one correlated error displaying the highest modification index. The fit statistics of the final measurement model ranged from acceptable to excellent, χ 2 (288) = 713.71, p < .001, CFI = .909, TLI = .898, RMSEA [90% CI] = .047 [.042, .051], SRMR = .047, and is displayed in Figure 1.…”

“…A total of 78.5% ( n = 590) reported having worked overtime during the past month. Data from this survey have previously been used in Louison Vang et al (2020).…”

Examining the relationship between self-care and compassion fatigue in mental health professionals: A critical review.

“…This measure has been known across mental health professionals since its conception in 1995 (ProQOL: Professional Quality of Life, 2021) and is commonly used to measure constructs such as compassion fatigue, secondary trauma, and burnout. Similar to all good measures, the ProQOL has been extensively critiqued; recent scholars evaluating the measure call into question its construct and discriminant validity (Geoffrion et al, 2019; Stamm et al, 2012; Vang et al, 2020). Nevertheless, its continued utility across multiple disciplines remains patent in extant research (Buselli et al, 2020; Van Kirk, 2021; Wolf et al, 2021).…”

What Mediates the Link Between Foster Parents’ Sensitivity Towards Child Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms and Job Satisfaction? The Role of Compassion Fatigue and Foster Parent-Child Relationship

“…On the other hand, a Danish child protection workers survey (N = 667) which investigated the relationship between STS, BO and job satisfaction concluded that both STS and BO were unrelated to job satisfaction (Louison Vang et al, 2020 ). Some studies have previously noted that high levels of emotional exhaustion do not impact the level of job satisfaction among a population of child protection workers, which might be explained by the buffering effect of organizational factors, such as job resources and support (Stalker et al, 2007 ).…”