Job Burnout Among the Helping Professions: The Roles of Childhood Maltreatment, Attachment Styles and Perceived Supervisor Support.

Job burnout is a major predicament globally, especially among the helping professions. Based on the job demands-resources (JDR) theory and on attachment theory, this study explored the relations between a history of childhood maltreatment (CM), insecure attachment styles (avoidant and anxious), perceived supervisor support and job burnout. A sample of 320 helping professionals participated in the study, of which 35% reported experiencing CM. Findings confirmed the hypothesis that a history of CM was positively related to both avoidant and anxious attachment styles. Anxious attachment style partly mediated the relationship between CM and burnout. In addition, the relationship between CM and burnout was mediated by avoidant attachment style and perceived supervisor support, so that highly avoidant professionals perceived their supervisors as less supportive, reporting higher levels of burnout. Notably, there were no discernible variations in burnout levels when comparing professionals who had experienced maltreatment with those who had not. The study highlights the value of adopting an attachment perspective to better understand job burnout among the helping professions.

Childhood Maltreatment and Adult Work Absenteeism: Work Meaningfulness as a Double-Edged Sword.

The adverse impacts of childhood maltreatment (CM) on an individual's health and economic welfare are widely recognized, yet its occupational and organizational effects remain less explored. Employee absenteeism, known as absenteeism, is often a sign of workplace maladjustment and may be linked to a history of CM. Some individuals in the helping professions, who exhibit a strong sense of purpose in their employment and pursue it in demanding environments, are CM survivors. This study investigates whether a heightened sense of meaningfulness in their work is associated with increased absenteeism among this subgroup. We recruited 320 helping professionals from a variety of social and mental health settings, one third of whom reported experiencing CM. As hypothesized, CM was positively correlated with work absenteeism. Furthermore, the relationship between work meaningfulness and absenteeism was moderated by their CM history: among those with CM experiences, greater work meaningfulness was associated with higher absenteeism rates. Our findings highlight the possibility that work meaningfulness may operate as a double-edged sword, and the importance of better understanding the challenges that high-functioning survivors of CM face within organizational contexts.

A phenomenological exploration of work-related post-traumatic growth among high-functioning adults maltreated as children.

Introduction: Childhood maltreatment is a highly prevalent traumatic experience, and its adverse psychological and behavioral consequences are well-documented. Notwithstanding these adverse outcomes, many individuals who suffered from traumatic experiences report post-traumatic growth, i.e., transformative positive changes resulting from their struggle to cope. Post-traumatic growth has been extensively explored among adult survivors of childhood maltreatment, with findings indicating both the previously recognized domains (personal strength, relating to others, appreciation of life, openness to new possibilities, and spiritual change) as well as abuse-specific domains of growth (e.g., increased ability to protect themselves from abuse). However, little attention has been given to vocational aspects of post-traumatic growth among survivors, despite the central role and importance of work in adulthood. Exploration of post-traumatic growth at work has focused on certain vocational traumatic experiences, such as those which occur in the military, or through secondary trauma. This exploratory qualitative study focuses on the question: What is the lived experience of work-related post-traumatic growth among high-functioning adult survivors of CM? Method: Twenty in-depth interviews were held with high-functioning working adults who were maltreated as children. Phenomenological analysis was applied to the retrospective data reported in these interviews. Result: Rich descriptions of work-related positive psychological changes were provided by all participants. Analysis revealed that survivors' post-traumatic growth corresponded with all five previously recognized domains of growth: changes in self, relating to others, openness to new possibilities, finding meaning to the abuse, and appreciation of life. It also revealed that work is perceived as a form of resistance (a subtheme of changes in self), and that finding meaning entails three emerging subthemes: being a survivor and a role model, giving others what was needed and never received, and making a better world. Discussion: While the vocational lives of survivors of childhood maltreatment have rarely been examined through the lens of post-traumatic growth, our results show this lens to be highly valuable. Work-related post-traumatic growth has relevance not only regarding vocational traumas occurring in adulthood as has been previously studied, but also in the context of childhood traumas. Moreover, our research broadens the understanding of the possible domains of work-related growth.

Lost in the matrix: Dialectical tensions in facilitating virtual video groups during COVID-19 pandemic.

The research phenomenologically explored the experience of facilitating virtual video groups during the COVID-19 pandemic. Research questions addressed relational processes in virtual video groups, including emotional presence, interpersonal communication, and intimacy. Specifically, we asked how facilitators can intervene effectively to promote these processes in the virtual space, within the context of social distancing. Semi-structured group interviews were held with 26 female group facilitators from various professional backgrounds during the first wave of COVID-19 in Israel in May 2020. Phenomenological analysis yielded five main themes addressing dialectical tensions that operate simultaneously in the virtual space, both enabling and hindering relational processes in virtual video groups: intimacy and intrusion in the domestic space; sharp transitions from presence to absence; fragmented processing despite abundant information; sterility and clarity in group communication; and the hyper-aware self - being a participant and an observer at the same time. Moving groups into a virtual sphere challenged the traditional role of facilitators, who struggled to create a safe space in an unstable virtual setting where the boundaries between personal and professional lives were reduced. Findings also point to the potential of the domestic space to promote closeness and intimacy and suggest the virtual space requires facilitators to embrace multiplicity as a state of mind when intervening. Facilitators must work with permeable boundaries between inner and outer group spaces, accept discontinuity as a basic property of the virtual, and acknowledge the limitations caused by multiple stimuli.

Hope, Material Resources, and Subjective Well-Being of 8- to 12-Year-Old Children in Israel.

Few studies have examined the links among hope, material resources, and subjective well-being (SWB) of children from their own perspectives. The article examines lack of material resources as a risk factor, hope as a human strength, and a possible moderator regarding children's SWB. The study employed a nationally representative sample of 2,977 Jewish and Arab Israeli children (ages 8-12). As predicted, there was a significant positive relation between hope and SWB, and a negative relation between lack of material resources and SWB. Hope was found to moderate the relation between lack of material resources and SWB. Furthermore, for 10- and 12-year olds, differences were found regarding the strength of the relations of the variables, suggesting a possible developmental trend.

Caregivers' Perceptions and Attitudes Toward Child Maltreatment: A Pilot Case Study in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Cleveland, USA.

The purpose of this pilot cross-national study was to uncover similarities and differences in three areas that might affect the development of community-based programs targeting child maltreatment: behaviors considered to be maltreatment, perceived contributors to maltreatment, and whether the government or neighbors can do anything about maltreatment. Data were obtained from two neighborhood-based, cross-sectional surveys of adult caregivers of minors: one in Cleveland, USA, the other in Tel Aviv, Israel. The sample consisted of a total of 120 caregivers, in each city 20 residing in a low-SES neighborhood, 20 in a medium-SES neighborhood, and 20 in an elevated-SES neighborhood. Participants were asked (a) to provide three examples of behaviors they considered to be child abuse, (b) to rate the degree to which each of 13 factors contribute to child maltreatment, and (c) to rate the degree to which they agreed with a range of attitudes about maltreatment. The same coding scheme was used in both sites. Logistic regression analyses assessed city differences in dichotomous outcomes, while linear regression analyses assessed city differences in ratings of continuous outcomes. Analyses adjusted for individual and neighborhood characteristics, and accounted for residential clustering in neighborhoods. Primary results indicated that residence in Tel Aviv was associated with greater odds of citing emotional/psychological abuse compared to Cleveland residents. Also compared to Cleveland residents, Tel Aviv residents (a) viewed family structure, family values, religion, child-raising knowledge, and personal history of maltreatment as contributing less to maltreatment, (b) were less likely to agree that anyone could abuse a child or that spanking is necessary, and (c) had substantially greater odds of endorsing the government's ability to address child maltreatment. Concerning study implications, this investigation demonstrated the importance of context in shaping constructions of child maltreatment and the need for caution in replicating interventions without due consideration of potential differences in context, policy, and public opinion.

The Contribution of Cognitive Strategies to the Resilience of Women Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse and Non-Abused Women.

This study examines the contribution of four strategies-self-forgiveness, realistic control, unrealistic control, and hope-to the resilience of 100 women survivors of childhood sexual abuse (CSA), as compared with 84 non-sexually abused women. The findings show that CSA survivors exhibited lower resilience, lower self-forgiveness, lower hope, and higher levels of posttraumatic symptoms (PTS). They also indicate that resilience was explained by the participants' financial status, PTS severity, and two cognitive strategies-self-forgiveness and hope. Finally, PTS and hope mediated the relation between CSA and resilience.

Posttraumatic growth among women survivors of childhood sexual abuse: Its relation to cognitive strategies, posttraumatic symptoms, and resilience.

OBJECTIVE: Research suggests that, after a traumatic event, survivors can experience positive change (posttraumatic growth), but the relation of these changes to overall psychological adjustment (resilience) and psychological distress (posttraumatic symptoms; PTS), as well as the relation to possible contributors, is still unclear. The study examines posttraumatic growth (PTG) among women survivors of childhood sexual abuse (CSA), looking at the relation of PTG to the women's cognitive strategies (past self-blame, self-forgiveness, perception of control and hope), resilience and PTS. METHODS: Self-report questionnaires were completed by 100 women survivors of CSA. RESULTS: Findings show that the main contributors to PTG were demographic-familial variables (birth order and number of siblings) and cognitive strategies (self-blame and hope).The relationship between resilience and PTG was curvilinear: The highest levels of PTG occurred when resilience levels were moderate. Variance in PTG was also explained by an interaction between resilience and PTS. CONCLUSIONS: Cognitive strategies and familial variables can contribute to PTG. The complex relations between PTG, resilience and PTS might help professionals better understand different trajectories of adjustment among trauma survivors. (PsycINFO Database Record