(WITHDRAWN) Factors Associated with Posttraumatic Growth of Helping Professionals in Suicide Prevention

Background and Purpose: Mental health professionals tend to experience vicarious trauma and secondary traumatic stress related to a client’ suicide. According to National Center for Mental Health (2017), approximately 81% of mental health professionals who works at community mental health centers and psychiatric rehabilitation centers experienced a trauma and approximately 33% of psychiatric social workers directly experienced a client’s suicide (Jeon, 2013). While most research has focused on aspects of posttraumatic stress, little research has been conducted on posttraumatic growth and its associative factors, especially among helping professionals in suicide prevention. Therefore, the purpose of the study examined the factors related to posttraumatic growth of helping professionals in suicide prevention.

Methods: Study sample was recruited by a convenience sampling method, and eligibility criteria of the study sample were as follows; 1) an 18-year-old individual, 2) a mental health professional, including a social worker, a doctor, a nurse, and a psychologist, and 3) at least 3 years of working experience in mental health settings. Data were collected through a self-report online survey and a final sample of 319 individuals was analyzed. To examine the factors related to posttraumatic growth of helping professionals in suicide prevention, a multiple regression model was conducted.

Results: The majority of the sample was female (68.0%), married (72.1%), a social worker (65.2%), with a mean age of 40.0 years (SD=8.5). In terms of working experience related to a client’s suicide, a mean of suicidal cases directly involved was 5.0 (SD=15.0) and suicidal cases indirectly involved was 7.5 (SD=16.3). As a result of multiple regression model, age (B=.50, p<.01), professional type (nurse: B=12.87, p<.001; social worker: B=8.34, p<.01), deliberate rumination (B=.95, p<.001), and social support (B=.16, p<.05) were found to be associated with posttraumatic growth of helping professionals in suicide prevention. In other words, age was likely to increase a level of posttraumatic growth, and nurses and social workers were more likely to have a higher level of posttraumatic growth when compared to doctors. A higher level of deliberate rumination and social support tended to increase a level of posttraumatic growth among helping professionals in suicide prevention.

Conclusions and Implications: Considering that deliberate rumination and social support were positively associated with posttraumatic growth of helping professionals in suicide prevention, the provision of professional and systematic supervision is essential and a variety of support systems should be given to helping professionals in suicide prevention. Furthermore, policymakers should develop standardized protocols and educational programs to enhance posttraumatic growth of helping professionals by incorporating unique characteristics of each agency.