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Sekundär traumatisk stress - En yrkesrisk

Sjöberg, Denise LU and Saltarski, Janni LU (2018) SOPA63 20172
School of Social Work
Abstract
The aim of this study is to examine how social workers in child welfare identify and reflect on stress in order to research to what extent social workers understand and use empathy in their professional role. The aim was also to examine the extent to which these social workers have developed an understanding of secondary traumatic stress, a particular type of stress where empathy is identified as a central tool. The analysis was based on the theory of empathy and its four components; the physiological component affective response and the three cognitive components self-other awareness, perspective taking and emotion regulation. The study is based on qualitative interviews with six women working with child welfare. The results show that... (More)
The aim of this study is to examine how social workers in child welfare identify and reflect on stress in order to research to what extent social workers understand and use empathy in their professional role. The aim was also to examine the extent to which these social workers have developed an understanding of secondary traumatic stress, a particular type of stress where empathy is identified as a central tool. The analysis was based on the theory of empathy and its four components; the physiological component affective response and the three cognitive components self-other awareness, perspective taking and emotion regulation. The study is based on qualitative interviews with six women working with child welfare. The results show that although all of the respondents reflect on stress, they cannot identify different types of stress or distinguish different types of stress from each other. The respondents experience moral distress, work overload and signs of burnout. All respondents exhibit one or more symptoms or individual indicators suggesting secondary traumatic stress but they all lack knowledge about secondary traumatic stress, its symptoms and risk factors for developing it. The respondents state that empathy is crucial in their line of work but acknowledge the fact that it can make them vulnerable. They all say that they use self-other awareness, one of the components of empathy, as a conscious strategy to prevent stress and being affected by their clients’ traumatic stories. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Sjöberg, Denise LU and Saltarski, Janni LU
supervisor
organization
course
SOPA63 20172
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
secondary traumatic stress, empathy, social work, child welfare
language
Swedish
id
8932761
date added to LUP
2018-01-31 13:44:38
date last changed
2018-01-31 13:44:38
@misc{8932761,
  abstract     = {{The aim of this study is to examine how social workers in child welfare identify and reflect on stress in order to research to what extent social workers understand and use empathy in their professional role. The aim was also to examine the extent to which these social workers have developed an understanding of secondary traumatic stress, a particular type of stress where empathy is identified as a central tool. The analysis was based on the theory of empathy and its four components; the physiological component affective response and the three cognitive components self-other awareness, perspective taking and emotion regulation. The study is based on qualitative interviews with six women working with child welfare. The results show that although all of the respondents reflect on stress, they cannot identify different types of stress or distinguish different types of stress from each other. The respondents experience moral distress, work overload and signs of burnout. All respondents exhibit one or more symptoms or individual indicators suggesting secondary traumatic stress but they all lack knowledge about secondary traumatic stress, its symptoms and risk factors for developing it. The respondents state that empathy is crucial in their line of work but acknowledge the fact that it can make them vulnerable. They all say that they use self-other awareness, one of the components of empathy, as a conscious strategy to prevent stress and being affected by their clients’ traumatic stories.}},
  author       = {{Sjöberg, Denise and Saltarski, Janni}},
  language     = {{swe}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Sekundär traumatisk stress - En yrkesrisk}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}