Risk factors for secondary traumatization in people working with refugees in Serbia

Abstract

Professionals who are working with refugees are on a daily basis faced with people who have experienced the most terrifying human suffering, and as such, are subjected to secondary traumatization (ST). ST comprises of typical traumarelated symptoms usually seen in trauma survivors suffering from PTSD. The aim of this study was to provide data on risk factors for ST in people working with refugees in Serbia. A total of 138 participants (75 females, age range from 18 to 73 (M=34.45; SD=10.87) working with refugees completed Secondary Traumatization Questionnaire, check list of refugees’ traumatic experiences which were communicated to them, Hopkins Symptoms Checklist (HSCL) assessing depression and anxiety symptoms, quality of life questionnaire (MANSA), HEXACO PI R personality inventory, and COPE assessing coping mechanisms. Additionally, participants provided various information on work related issues. Qualitative analysis of answers to the questions regarding jobrelated experiences have shown that the most prominent generators of stress are clustered around three recurrent themes: “lack of organization and cooperation”, “not been able to do enough”, and “hard to take it and to process it”. Factor analysis (Maximum likelihood extraction, Promax rotation) has shown that ST comprises of two correlated factors (r=.533, p<.01), namely Psychological deficits and Intrusions. Correlation and regression analyses have shown that main risk factors for ST lie in three interrelated sources: 1) work-related issues; 2) personality-related risk factors – high Emotionality (β=.214, p<.05), and Altruism (β=.348, p<.01) for Intrusions [R=.407, F(7,102)=2.893, p<.01], and low Extraversion (β=-.439, p<.01) for Psychological deficits [R=.530, F(7,102)=5.705, p<.01], and usage of maladaptive coping mechanisms – Psychological deficits have shown to correlate with mental disengagement (r=.275, p<.01), behavioral disengagement (r=.237, p<.01), focusing on distress and venting of emotions (r=.212, p<.05), while Intrusions correlate with mental disengagement (r=.236, p<.01) and denial (r=.183, p<.05); and 3) quantity of clients’ traumatic experiences they were faced with (r=.190, p<.05), as well as certain content-related features of such experiences (especially experiences which are severely dislocated from “everyday reality”). The Psychological deficits and Intrusions have shown to be accompanied by symptoms of depression (r=.813, p<.01; r=.540, p<.01) and anxiety (r=.772, p<.01; r=.475, p<.01), overall lower life quality (r=-.452, p<.01; r=- .189, p<.05), and contemplation on work-related experiences long after regular working hours (r=.286, p<.01; r=.321, p<.01). Results indicate that psychological vulnerability of people working with traumatized individuals lies in certain personality traits, and usage of maladaptive coping mechanisms, which disable one to deal with work-related issues, and to cope with traumatic contents they were faced with, affecting one’s psychological well-being.