Purpose: Social workers report experiencing depression and burnout, that they frequently do not seek assistance for these problems, and that the quality of their professional work is diminished as a result (Author, 2004, 2005, in press). Although research about social workers is thin, the literature suggests that their characteristics and identities as caregivers may interfere with their seeking help. This paper reports the development and validation of the Caregiver Role Identity Scale (CRIS), designed to measure the prominence of helping professionals' identities as personal and professional caregivers. We developed the measure to test its application to burnout, depression, and professional impairment among social workers.

Methods: The instrument development was an iterative process, guided by a thorough review of the literature and the feedback from focus groups of social workers, pretests, and a pilot test. The instrument was included in an anonymous survey of 1000 practicing social workers that asked about social workers' health and work issues. The survey also included the emotional exhaustion subscale of the Maslach Burnout Inventory, the CES-D measure of depressive symptoms, a dichotomous help-seeking measure, and measures of personal characteristics mentioned in the literature that could be related to caregiver role identity. For analysis, we split the sample to conduct exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses on the 10-item CRIS.

Results: The survey attained a 75% usable response rate and the sample was demographically comparable to the national population of NASW members. The exploratory analysis demonstrated good internal consistency reliability (.81), good content validity, and preliminary discriminant validity for a 9-item, two-factor scale. The confirmatory analysis demonstrated excellent factorial validity for a revised 8-item, 2-factor scale, retaining reliability and demonstrating convergent validity. Caregiver role identity was related to burnout, depression, professional impairment, and not seeking help for personal problems.

Implications for practice: This scale demonstrated sound psychometric properties and was consistent with an identity theory explanation of social workers' reluctance to seek help for burnout and depression. As such, it may be a useful tool for early prevention intervention – ideally in social workers' early training in schools of social work, before the rigors and stress of social work practice contribute to the depression or burnout that can result in impaired practice. Identifying social work students with prominent caregiver role identities and presenting curriculum on self-awareness and self-care, with a focus on personal distress and professional impairment, might improve the well-being of vulnerable professionals and their clients. An appreciation for the importance of caregiver role identity could also assist treatment providers in the formulation of assessments and interventions for distressed and impaired social workers once they have been identified, improving the likelihood of effective intervention.

Author (2004). Depression in North Carolina social workers: Implications for practice and research. Social Work Research, 28(1), 30-40.

Author (2005). Help seeking and AOD use among social workers: Patterns, barriers, and implications. Social Work, 50(1), 65-75.

Author (In press). Personal and occupational factors in burnout among practicing social workers: Implications for researchers, practitioners, and managers. Journal of Social Service Research.