The Indirect Trauma of Social Work Students in Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) Placement Settings: A Scoping Review

Background and Purpose: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a significant concern for the well-being of women, children, and society. IPV can create varying degrees of trauma among survivors of IPV, such as posttraumatic stress, hypervigilance, flashbacks, anxiety, and depression. Social workers play a key role in helping survivors recover, which increases their risk of indirect trauma (e.g., secondary trauma, vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue). Social work students in IPV field placements are at an even greater risk and are often ill-equipped to manage their emotional responses to trauma. Supervision can provide students with strategies in dealing with the adverse effects of exposure to trauma (Bell et al. 2003; Cunningham 2003). To date, research on the experiences of indirect trauma on social work students in IPV settings remains scant. Thus, the purpose of this paper was to comprehensively review and synthesize empirical studies that explored the indirect trauma of social work professionals and students in IPV and trauma-related settings and provide recommendations for supervision.

Methods: This paper utilized the five steps recommended by Arskey & O’Malley (2005) for conducting a scoping review. The search included five databases: Social Services Abstracts, Social Work Abstracts, PsycInfo, SocIndex, and Sociological Abstracts. Database-specific key words, such as “intimate partner violence” or “domestic violence” AND “secondary trauma” or “vicarious trauma” or “compassion fatigue” AND “social work*” or “social work student” or “train*” were used for each database search. The inclusion criteria were: (a) published in peer-reviewed journals; (b) written in English; and (c) included a mixed-methods, quantitative or qualitative study design. The papers are extracted by two independent reviewers, including quality assessment. These articles were analyzed through in-depth examination and data extraction to identify common themes and gaps in the literature.

Results: A total of 1,080 references were retrieved, of which 155 articles were identified as eligible in pre-screening. After a removal of duplicates, title and abstract review, 41 articles remained for full text review. The reviewers identified 17 articles that met full criteria for the analysis. Out of the 17 studies reviewed; twelve were quantitative, three were qualitative, and two studies were mixed-methods. The sample sizes in the selected studies ranged from n=10 to n=259, and most studies were conducted in the U.S. (n=11), with the rest in the U.K. (n=1), Canada (n=2), and Israel (n=3). Twelve studies were specific to IPV and the other five focused on trauma-related settings. Eleven studies examined the experiences of social work practitioners, whereas the remaining studies focused on students. Half of studies provided recommendations for supervision.

Conclusion and Implications: Findings from this scoping review indicate that prolonged experiences of indirect trauma may lead to burnout and the decision to leave the field of IPV. Supervision can serve as a protective factor to mediate the effects of indirect trauma on students. However, signs of indirect trauma may be overlooked or minimized. Supervision that addresses indirect trauma may help ensure students are prepared for a long career in IPV. Findings will be summarized to help inform supervision of social work students.