Laura Santos, Andreia Ferreira, D. Silva, Maria Pinheiro, D. Rijo
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引用次数: 2
Abstract
ABSTRACT Occupational stress is commonly experienced by professional caregivers working in Residential Youth Care (RYC), due to the psychological demands of their work. Although the influence of stress has been studied on this helping profession, there is still no measurement tool to assess the potential sources of stress for these professionals. This study aimed to validate the Stress Questionnaire for Residential Youth Care Professionals (Stress-RYCaregivers), a self-report questionnaire assessing different sources of occupational stress experienced by RYC professionals. Dimensionality and psychometric properties were investigated using a sample of 360 professional caregivers (88.6% female) working in 41 residential care facilities. A confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the 25 items grouped into six factors (i.e., Caring of Children and Young People, Work overload, Career progression and salary, Relationships at work, Training activities, and Home-work interface). All subscales showed adequate internal consistency and test–retest reliability. Construct validity in relation to external variables was also found. Significant differences in stress sources were found concerning personal and work variables. Understanding the causes of stress is the first step to prevent it, which may impact in the caregivers’ quality of life, in the care provided, and, ultimately, in the quality of life of children in RYC.
期刊介绍:
Accounts of Chemical Research presents short, concise and critical articles offering easy-to-read overviews of basic research and applications in all areas of chemistry and biochemistry. These short reviews focus on research from the author’s own laboratory and are designed to teach the reader about a research project. In addition, Accounts of Chemical Research publishes commentaries that give an informed opinion on a current research problem. Special Issues online are devoted to a single topic of unusual activity and significance.
Accounts of Chemical Research replaces the traditional article abstract with an article "Conspectus." These entries synopsize the research affording the reader a closer look at the content and significance of an article. Through this provision of a more detailed description of the article contents, the Conspectus enhances the article's discoverability by search engines and the exposure for the research.