Burnout among trauma social workers: The contribution of personal and environmental resources

Summary: In recent years, there has been increasing research interest in the negative consequences for therapists of working with trauma victims. In that context, burnout is a major concept used in the literature. One of the main questions examined in the literature relates to the factors that contribute to burnout. This question is particularly relevant to therapists working with trauma victims, but has hardly been examined among that population. To fill this gap, the present study sought to examine burnout among therapists working with trauma victims. In addition, we examined the contribution of the therapists’ background characteristics as well as the contribution of their personal resources (mastery, self-esteem, and role competence), and environmental resources (social and colleagues support). The study was conducted among a sample of 214 social workers who work with trauma victims at social services in Israel. Findings: The research findings indicate that the participants’ levels of burnout were average. In addition, the therapist’s age, past exposure to trauma, self-esteem, and mastery, as well as influence (as a component of role competence) contributed significantly to burnout. Applications: The study sheds light on the negative consequences of therapeutic work for therapists, and on the factors that lead to those consequences. The findings indicate that the impact of the therapists’ personal resources was more significant than that of environmental resources.