Vicariously Resilient or Traumatised Social Workers: Exploring Some Risk and Protective Factors

Abstract

Due to the indirect exposure to traumatic realities, social workers may experience emotional responses of vicarious traumatisation or vicarious resilience. Previous research indicated that risk factors (workload and trauma caseload) provoke vicarious traumatisation and that protection factors (recovery experiences and organisational support) can buffer this relationship. However, the empirical testing of these associations was scarce amongst social workers. This cross-sectional study aims to answer two main research questions: (i) can workload and trauma caseload predict vicarious resilience and vicarious trauma? (ii) Can recovery experiences and organisational support mediate the influence of risk factors on emotional responses? A sample of 373 Spanish social workers (87 per cent females) completed a questionnaire online. The structural equation modelling analyses showed that workload and trauma caseload make recovery experiences and organisational support less likely, facilitating the emergence of vicarious trauma. Recovery experiences and organisational support protect people from vicarious trauma and promote vicarious resilience, both directly and by limiting the influence of workload and trauma caseload. These results highlight the need for interventions enhancing recovery experiences and organisational support as a means to promote vicarious resilience and to decrease vicarious trauma. The need to reduce other risk factors, enhancing protective factors, is also noted.

Exploring the evocative qualities of masks’ visual imagery and their associations with adversity and trauma

“…When healthcare providers empathetically attune themselves to their patient’s traumatic experiences, they become more susceptible to being vicariously traumatized, altering their perception of self, of others, and of the world around them ( Pearlman and Mac Ian, 1995 ). Vicarious trauma has been found in professionals such as public service interpreters ( Lai and Heydon, 2015 ), nurses ( Isobel and Thomas, 2022 ), social workers ( Méndez-Fernández et al, 2022 ), and law enforcement personnel within the criminal justice system ( Burruss et al, 2018 ). Vicarious trauma responses can also occur in other segments of the population through media coverage of terror attacks, mass violence, or diseases ( Ahern et al, 2004 ; Thompson et al, 2019 ; Liu and Liu, 2020 ).…”

Police Resilience as a Multilevel Balance: Needs and Resources for Victim Support Officers

“…Considering psychology-based definitions, adversity and response are found in the American Psychological Association’s professional practice, for which resilience may be summarized as the capacity to bounce back after adversities, or as the “the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, or significant sources of stress” (APA, 2012). They may also be found among the most frequent definitions, such as “ability to bounce back from the ravages of chronic stress and moving to a state of renewal, thriving and flourishing” (Liu & Boyatzis, 2021), recovery experiences after workload excess and trauma (Méndez-Fernández et al, 2021), post-traumatic growth (Maitlis, 2020), an “individuals’ ability to adapt to significant adversities while maintaining good mental and physical wellbeing” (Wadi et al, 2020). For this paper’s purpose, we understand resilience as both the process and the ability to recover and/or adapt from negative experiences and phenomena.…”

“…Resilience scales based on surveys, such as the 14-Item Resilience Scale, have been productive tools for the study of the relation between resilience and variables such as stress, anxiety, or physical health (Orrù et al, 2021; Wagnild, 2009). Furthermore, these types of surveys have also uncovered the mediator role that resilience may play regarding burnout and compassion fatigue (Ferreira & Gomes, 2021; Méndez-Fernández et al, 2021).…”

Coping and self-care: Mediating the association of job stressors with vicarious trauma and vicarious resilience

“…Similarly, many social workers attend to patients who have suffered traumatic events and may therefore experience both negative and positive effects of indirect exposure to trauma (Baldschun et al, 2019; Baugerud et al, 2018; Choi, 2017; Cuartero & Campos-Vidal, 2019; Cummings et al, 2020; Itzick et al, 2018; Lauridsen & Munkejord, 2022; Levenson, 2017, 2020; Méndez-Fernández et al, 2022; Pandya, 2021; Quinn et al, 2019; Singer et al, 2020; Vang et al, 2020; Weiss-Dagan et al, 2022). Likewise, mainly in their field instruction, social work students may also suffer from indirect exposure to traumatic material (Ben-Porat et al, 2020; Boel-Studt et al, 2022; CSWE, 2018; Knight, 2019; Tarshis & Baird, 2019).…”