Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry (생물정신의학)

The Korean Society of Biological Psychiatry (대한생물정신의학회)
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Relationship between Traumatic Events, Stress Coping Strategies and Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms among Social Workers in Public Sector

사회복지전담공무원의 외상사건 및 스트레스 대처방식과 외상후스트레스증상 관련성

  • Lee, Junghyun H. (Psychological Trauma Center, Seoul National Hospital) ;
  • Kim, Jiae (Psychological Trauma Center, Seoul National Hospital) ;
  • Sim, Minyoung (Psychological Trauma Center, Seoul National Hospital) ;
  • Jeon, Kyoungsun (Psychological Trauma Center, Seoul National Hospital) ;
  • Oh, Seunga (Psychological Trauma Center, Seoul National Hospital) ;
  • Yang, Jungll (Psychological Trauma Center, Seoul National Hospital) ;
  • Lee, Yunglyul (Department of Psychiatry, Bugok National Hospital)
  • 이정현 (국립서울병원 심리적외상관리팀) ;
  • 김지애 (국립서울병원 심리적외상관리팀) ;
  • 심민영 (국립서울병원 심리적외상관리팀) ;
  • 전경선 (국립서울병원 심리적외상관리팀) ;
  • 오승아 (국립서울병원 심리적외상관리팀) ;
  • 양정일 (국립서울병원 심리적외상관리팀) ;
  • 이영렬 (국립부곡병원 정신건강의학과)
  • Received : 2015.01.19
  • Accepted : 2015.02.17
  • Published : 2015.05.31
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Abstract

Objectives Social workers can suffer from occupational stress resulting from dealing with clients, which might lead to metal health problems. We aimed to investigate the association of duty-related traumatic experiences and stress coping strategies with post-traumatic stress symptoms among social workers in public sector. Methods A total of 110 social workers in public sector (men 30.9%, $36.5{\pm}7.6$ yrs) participated in this study. All subjects were evaluated the frequency and the impact of duty-related traumatic events. Additionally, they completed questionnaires including the Impact of Event Scale-Revised for post-traumatic stress symptoms, the Beck Depression Inventory-II for depressive symptoms, the Scale for Suicidal Ideation for suicide symptoms and the Ways of Coping Checklist for stress coping strategies. Results The most frequent traumatic events were "Violent or abusive language from a client" (95.0%) and "Client made a fuss" (94.5%). The most distressing traumatic event was "Seeing a dead body on duty" (7.6 out of 10), which predicted post-traumatic stress symptoms (odds ratio 4.04 ; 95% confidence interval, 1.79-9.11). Among 4 types of stress coping strategies, the emotion-focused coping was positively correlated with post-traumatic stress symptoms after controlling age and sex (${\beta}$ = 0.50, p < 0.001). Conclusions Social workers in public sector showed high level of post-traumatic stress symptoms. Duty-related traumatic events and the emotional-focused coping strategies were associated with the severity of post-traumatic stress symptoms. The modification of stress coping strategies would alleviate post-traumatic stress symptoms in social workers in public sector.

Keywords

References

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