The Predictors of the Consequences of Secondary Exposure to Trauma Among Professionals Working With Trauma Victims

Abstract

Helping those who have experienced trauma exposes the helpers to secondary traumatization. The mechanisms of its development are most often explained using the cognitive model of trauma processing. The aim of the research is to determine how disturbances of core beliefs and cognitive processing in the form of coping with stress are associated with secondary traumatic stress (STS) and secondary posttraumatic growth (SPTG). The study was conducted among psychologists and social workers (N = 240), working with people after traumatic experiences. Four standardized measurement tools were used. Based on the differential diagnosis, four types of consequences were identified. Discriminant analysis was used to establish the optimal configuration of predictors explaining the differences between the four subgroups. Two significant discriminant functions were significant, each identifies different beliefs and coping strategies. The first is associated with the disruptions of core beliefs about the world and cognitive processing in the form of a non-adaptive strategy; the second—with disturbed beliefs about oneself and adaptation strategies. Our results show a much greater exposure of social workers to the negative consequences of secondary traumatic stress disorder. A system of constant monitoring should be introduced, and the principles of prevention and therapy should be implemented.