Traumatic Life Experiences & Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptom Prevalence Among Bachelor of Social Work Students

Background & Purpose

Research into the long lasting effects of both traumatic life events and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder have shown a greater likelihood of negative outcomes for those impacted. PTSD is associated with substance use disorders, suicidal ideation, physical health ailments, and mental health issues such as anxiety and depression. Additionally, once an individual has developed PTSD that their ability to implement safe and effective coping skills goes down which bolsters the severity of their PTSD symptoms.

Stigma often prevents BSW students from seeking help when needed. Due to the fact that there are were no current studies on this issue, there were no national samples representing this data, and research indicates that traumatic experiences leave a lasting negative impact on populations affected, the questions driving this research were:

1. What is the self-reported prevalence of traumatic life experiences among Bachelor of Social Work Students?
2. What is the prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms among Bachelor of Social Work students?

Methods

Measures

Upon IRB approval, an email describing the research and a link to the online Qualitrics survey was sent to all 513 CSWE accredited BSW Program Coordinators on March 20^th, 2016. The email asked the coordinators to forward the email and survey link to their students. To be eligible for the survey, students had to be currently enrolled in a BSW program, be 18 years of age or older, and give informed consent.

Survey design was quantitative and consisted of 8 demographic/characteristic questions including gender and age,17 questions from the Life Events Checklist-5 (LEC-5) and 20 questions from the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist-5 (PCL-5)  and took approximately 10-15 minutes to complete.

The survey was closed on April 6^th, 2016. Data was exported into SPSS for analyses. Descriptive statistics and bivariate analyses were calculated.

Sample

Survey sample consisted of 354 qualifying individuals. Sample mean age was 24.88 years with a minimum age of 18 and a maximum age of 62. Sample was 92% female, 7% male and 1% transgender. Sample ethnicity consisted of 79% white and 21% non-white. The sample was located from 22 states and territories. Their year in school was identified as: 44% seniors, 37% juniors, 13% sophomores, and 6% freshmen. 36% were currently in practicum while 64% were not.

Results

Data from the LEC-5 indicated that 92% of students have experienced at least 1 traumatic life event with a mean score of 3.55 events while 81% have witnessed at least one. Data from the PCL-5 indicated that 26.3% of BSW students qualify for  a diagnosis of PTSD.

Implications

BSW students are soon to be working with vulnerable populations in both their practicum and career settings and will continue to experience exposure to secondary and vicarious trauma in both their practicum settings and professional careers.

It is recommended that CSWE curriculum reflect the potential trauma based needs of its’ students to help ensure that students are encouraged and welcomed to receive the assistance they need to address their own traumas before encountering client populations.