Social Workers' Abuse through e-Media in Israel: Extent, Correlates, and Consequences (WITHDRAWN)

Background:

Aggressive client-behavior toward social workers have been studied and documented all over the world, focusing mainly on such forms of client aggression as verbal and physical violence. In recent years new forms of aggression have been developing, using electronic communication media (e-media) in order to abuse social workers. Such forms of aggression may include sending threatening messages through email and texting; or using the internet and related social-media networks in order to shame and stalk social workers.

The goal of the present-study was to assess the extent of e-media client violence in Israel, and examine its association with other forms of client aggression, as well as it possible effects on the workers' health. It was hypothesized that a positive correlation will be found between workers' exposure to e-media victimization and other forms of victimization, and between exposure to e-media victimization and somatic and traumatic symptoms. 

Methods:

A cross-sectional survey design was used, using a stratified random sample of 700 social workers, working in municipal social work agencies in Israel (Leshachot Revaha). Questionnaires were delivered to all participants during staff meetings, and collected later by the researchers in sealed envelopes. The return rate was 92.14% (645 out of a total of 700 questionnaires delivered). The age of participants ranged from 20 to 67 (M = 41.64,SD = 10.21); 556 (86.2%) were females; and participants’ experience ranged from two months to 42 years (M = 10.18, SD = 8.38). The survey has used known measures of client violence as well as measures of PTSD and Somatic symptoms. All instruments had acceptable internal reliability (Chronbach’s Alpha). Analysis consisted of descriptive statistics, correlations, and GEE regression models (controlling for intraclass correlations within agencies).

Results:

More than 18% of the respondents were exposed to at least one form of victimization through e-media over a period of 3 months, compared with 71% for verbal-aggression, 69% for threats, 11% for property damage and 4% for physical violence. E-media victimization was significantly and positively correlated with all other forms of victimization, as well as with traumatic and somatic symptoms. The association between E-media victimization and traumatic and somatic symptoms remained significant after controlling for the effects of other forms of client-aggression.

Conclusions and Implications:

The findings highlight the prevalence of e-media based forms of client aggression and their health related effects of social workers. Given the growing presence of social e-media in social life, using this venue in order to abuse social workers is expected to also grow with time. Given the nature of the outcomes of such victimization in terms of PTSD and somatic symptoms, and their adverse impact there is a need to focus research and policy efforts in order to reduce client aggression in general and use of e-media in particular. The impact of such forms of abuse go beyond the individual workers who are exposed, and affect the organizations in which they work and the profession as a whole. Future research should examine organizationally related outcomes such burnout, intentions to leave, and presentism.