What Comes First, Job Burnout or Secondary Traumatic Stress? Findings from Two Longitudinal Studies from the U.S. and Poland

Kotaro Shoji, Magdalena Lesnierowska, Ewelina Smoktunowicz, Judith Bock, Aleksandra Luszczynska, Charles C Benight and Roman Cieslak

PLOS ONE, 2015, vol. 10, issue 8, 1-15

Abstract: This longitudinal research examined the directions of the relationships between job burnout and secondary traumatic stress (STS) among human services workers. In particular, using cross-lagged panel design, we investigated whether job burnout predicts STS at 6-month follow up or whether the level of STS symptoms explains job burnout at 6-month follow-up. Participants in Study 1 were behavioral or mental healthcare providers (N = 135) working with U.S. military personnel suffering from trauma. Participants in Study 2 were healthcare providers, social workers, and other human services professions (N = 194) providing various types of services for civilian trauma survivors in Poland. The cross-lagged analyses showed consistent results for both longitudinal studies; job burnout measured at Time 1 led to STS at Time 2, but STS assessed at Time 1 did not lead to job burnout at Time 2. These results contribute to a discussion on the origins of STS and job burnout among human services personnel working in highly demanding context of work-related secondary exposure to traumatic events and confirm that job burnout contributes to the development of STS.

Date: 2015
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0136730

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0136730

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