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

Maria Louison Vang, Mark Shevlin, Maj Hansen, Lane Lund, Ditte Askerod, Rikke Holm Bramsen, Natalie Flanagan

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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.

Translated title of the contributionTraumatización secundaria, agotamiento profesional y deterioro funcional. Hallazgos de un estudio de trabajadores de protección infantil Daneses
Original languageEnglish
Article number1724416
JournalEuropean Journal of Psychotraumatology
Volume11
Issue number1
ISSN2000-8066
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020

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