• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.11
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• pp.457-471
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to explore the in-depth content of vicarious trauma experience of sexual violence counselors and to develop intervention strategy. To this end, depth interviews were conducted with twelve sexual violence counselors working at the sexual violence counseling site for more than three years. In addition, using the concept mapping method, the content exploration of the experience of vicarious trauma of sexual violence counselors was confirmed, and its conceptual structure was identified. As a result, 60 key sentences regarding the experience of vicarious trauma of sexual violence counselors were extracted. Then, multi-dimensional scale and cluster analysis were conducted after making nineteen appraisal participants who are under the same condition as depth interview participants to categorize and assess key sentences. As a result of analysis, the x-axis of negative perception, psychological and emotional dimension, and the y-axis of personal inner and behavioral dimension appeared, and five clusters emerged: immersion and skepticism about work, experience of emotional assimilation, hypersensitivity to sex, increased vigilance against men, and threat of safety. This provided basic data that could categorize and identify the contents of vicarious trauma of sexual violence counselors experience by sexual violence counselors.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.12
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• pp.393-405
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to develop and validate a scale of vicarious trauma for sexual violence counselors. To this end, the concept of composition and preliminary questions of the vicarious trauma of sexual violence counselors were selected through the analysis of a content of individual interviews of sexual violence counselors and the precedent theory. Then, preliminary scale was developed after expert's evaluation of the validity of the contents. Next, as a result of a confirmatory factor analysis on the preliminary scale of 349 sexual violence counselors with experience in consulting sexual violence clients, it is confirmed that the conformity of five-factor structure was found to be favorable. As a result of convergent and discriminative validity analysis, it was confirmed that the developed scale is a reasonable tool for measuring vicarious trauma of sexual violence counselors by showing proper correlation with Secondary Traumatic Stress Scale, Counselor Burnout Inventory and Inventory of Countertransference Behavior. Furthermore, as a result of correlation analysis between professional identity and Belief in a Just World, it confirmed that it has predictive validity of the scale by indicating a high negative correlation. Furthermore, the relationship between the scale of vicarious trauma of sexual violence counselors and career background was analyzed. Finally, based on the results of this study, the significance and limitations of this study and the direction of future research were discussed.

• Anxiety and mood
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.65-70
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• 2010

Objectives : Indirect contact with trauma may occur when a person empathically listens to detailed descriptions, exposing the person to intense emotional pain from trauma victims. Although less severe than direct trauma, indirectly traumatized persons may experience the same fear, rage, and despair as direct trauma victims. This phenomenon has been variously termed vicarious trauma, traumatic countertransference, burnout, compassion fatigue, and secondary traumatic stress. Using a psychiatric symptoms questionnaires, this study investigated the effects of indirect exposure to co-worker's trauma on the mental health of firefighters who had not directly experienced traumatic events in the previous year. Methods : We administered self-report questionnaires, such as the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IESR) and Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT), to firefighters working at two fire stations in a metropolitan city. We analyzed 188 of 232 collected surveys, after excluding falsely entered data (28 cases) and questionnaires by directly-traumatized victims (16 cases). Results : Alcohol consumption and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, as determined by the AUDIT and IES-R, were significantly higher in the indirectly-traumatized group. The ratio of high-risk members scoring higher than 23 in IES-R was larger in the indirectly traumatized group, although this was not statistically significant. Conclusion : Alcohol consumption was significantly higher in the indirectly traumatized group. This group also included more members at high risk for PTSD. Further research, with a larger group of indirectly traumatized firefighters and ongoing investigation of PTSD development and other psychiatric symptoms, is needed.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.249-273
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• 2012

Certain professionals face repeated exposure to traumatic events throughout their career. Although typically linked to pathological outcomes, research has identified sustained positive benefits and posttraumatic growth (PTG) as consistent posttrauma outcomes in occupational exposed to trauma. This study investigated the association of occupation, subjective psychological distress to a traumatic event, and demographic characteristics with posttraumatic growth in emergency workers (firefighters, rescue, and ambulance personnel), subway operators, and child protective service workers. The study led to the following conclusions: First, all three groups are risk groups of PTSD, especially, subway operators demonstrated the highest degree. Child protective service workers demonstrated the highest degree of PTG and emergency workers and subway operators followed respectively. Second, vicarious trauma and PTG were significantly correlated, in particular, invasion and avoidance were more highly correlated. Third, multivariate analysis revealed that occupation, invasion, avoidance, religion, and sex were significantly associated with PTG. Discussion addresses the need to serve mental health service and to apply concept of PTG for occupations exposed to trauma.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.43-67
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• 2022

One of the dark sides of the development of information and communication technology is the significant increase in cybercrime. In particular, investigators in charge of cyber sexual crime are repeatedly exposed to video data of illegal sexual violence; hence, they are at high risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and experiencing vicarious trauma. Notwithstanding, few studies have focused on these investigators' PTSD, and, to the best of our knowledge, no study has been conducted on the vicarious trauma of cyber sexual crime investigators. Therefore, this study identifies investigators' mental health status (trauma-related, especially) and examines their perception of the currently operating psychological support programs. Further, by reviewing the psychological support system of overseas institutions, we would suggest psychological support and policies necessary for domestic cyber sexual crime units to manage investigators' work stress and prevent mental illness under domestic circumstances.

• Journal of Digital Contents Society
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.673-683
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• 2018

The accident of Sewol Ferry is a disaster that provoked serious mental shock to the Korean people way beyond the level of generally-perceived catastrophic aftermaths. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between vicarious disaster experiences through media and post-traumatic stress(PTSD) symptoms of media users related to the accident. The responses of 417 people consisted of college, middle and high school students, and adults in a metropolitan area were collected for 12 days from the April 28, 2014 right after the accident. The results showed that the level of PTSD of social media users were higher than that of traditional media (newspapers or TV news) users on the accident. Also, the amount of use of disaster news information and social media revealed positive correlations with PTSD. Implications of this study are to demonstrate possible mechanisms of psychological trauma mediated by media on a disaster and its empirical data and to facilitate further research.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.38-51
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• 2012

Purpose: In this study the literature of compassion fatigue in nurses was reviewed in order to analyze the trends of overall research for level of fatigue, symptoms, and factors. Methods: For this study, five databases were searched using the key words 'compassion fatigue', 'secondary traumatization', 'secondary traumatic stress', and 'vicarious traumatization'. Thirty-six papers were analyzed. Results: Most of the compassion fatigue research (86%) was conducted between 2006 and 2011 and the most frequent research approach was quantitative research with the ProQOL which was the most frequently used instrument in the studies. He research was conducted in pediatric, emergency & trauma, oncology, psychiatric, and hospice units with no consistent patterns of t compassion fatigue levels. Factors affecting compassion fatigue were personal factors such as age, education background, work-related factors such as caring for trauma patients, work hours, psychological factors such as work stress, burnout, and support/coping factors such as organizational support, and coping resources. Conclusion: Nurses' compassion fatigue varied from low to high by nursing specialties. Many factors affected the compassion fatigue of nurses. In the future there is a need for study on Korean nurses, and identification of groups at risk for compassion fatigue. Furthermore there is a need to develop management programs on compassion fatigue in nurses, stress reduction and wellbeing.

• Journal of Industrial Convergence
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• v.20 no.10
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• pp.61-69
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• 2022

Posttraumatic growth literature has been rapidly expanding in multiple academic disciplines. Purpose of this study is to examine the knowledge structure of posttraumatic growth utilizing a network analysis. Papers published between 1996 and 2018 were searched on the Web of Science, focusing on terms related to posttraumatic growth. One thousand six-hundred and fifty-nine keywords were published 6,343 times in 1,780 papers; thus, a total of 322 keywords (5,195 appearances) were selected for the final analysis. The network analysis and network visualization tool used were NodeXL and PFnet, respectively. The keywords which appeared the most frequently were "Posttraumatic growth," followed by "Posttraumatic Stress Disease," "Cancer," and "Trauma." A total of 322 nodes have been reduced to 175 nodes and divided into a total of five groups. The five groups were "Posttraumatic Growth in Cancer, Chronic/Serious Illness, and Disability," "Posttraumatic Growth-related Psychological Variables and Psychotherapy," "Posttraumatic Growth in the Context of Death," "Cognitive Mechanisms of Posttraumatic Growth," and "Vicarious Posttraumatic Growth." This study provides a systematic overview on the knowledge structure of posttraumatic growth by quantitatively network analysis.