[WITHDRAWN] Promoting Mental Health: The Impact of Stress Management Training on Future Social Work Practitioners

Background and Purpose: COVID-19’s resulting mental health crisis includes an alarming increase in serious behavioral health disorders such as anxiety, depression, substance use, posttraumatic stress disorder, intimate partner violence and suicide. As a result, higher education students are demanding broader access to care at colleges and universities for prevention and intervention services. The response has included embracing a broader culture of well-being as well as finding ways to build resilience. As a helping profession, social work students are at a greater risk for mental health challenges, as they consistently experience unique stressors as part of their education, yet rarely receive training or education on how to regulate distress/stress, along with negative thoughts and emotions that arise as part of their education/work-practicum/ life, post-pandemic. As a result of growing need, a stress management intervention program was developed and implemented, open to generalist and specialized social work education students at a mid-size BSW and MSW program. This study investigated whether these social work trainees benefited from evidenced-based, stress reduction techniques to reduce their anxiety and emotional distress.

Methods: Seventy-seven (77) BSW and MSW students participated in an eight-week stress management intervention. A mixed-methods exploratory design was utilized. Quantitative data was collected from participants in a scale administered pre and post of the intervention using the Distress Tolerance Scale (DTS), a 15-item,1-5 Likert scale (Strongly Disagree-Strongly Agree) designed to measure an individual’s ability to tolerate distress based on four components: tolerance, appraisal, absorption, and regulation. DTS mean scores were tested for significant differences in a paired samples t-test. Qualitative data was collected through open-ended questions post intervention to better understand concepts students learned and applied. The qualitative data was analyzed through MaxQDA. Students were required to practice skills learned daily from the stress management intervention.

Results: 71% of participants are ages 20-29 years, 92% identified as female, 61% identified as white, and 92% identified as never receiving training on stress management skills. Stress management significantly improved from pre-test (M = 2.83, SD = .76) to post-test (M = 2.43, SD = .70); t (6.265) =68, p<.000. and DTS reliability was high (α = .815). The post-test included one additional qualitative question, as trainees were asked to share their most significant learning. Qualitative analyses suggests an increase in student’s recognition of their emotions, mental states, thoughts, decision-making and/or cognitive understanding of stress, and how to manage stress more effectively.

Conclusions and Implications: Findings suggest that stress management training benefited our trainees: future social work practitioners, who are facing a profession with an excessively high burnout rate. Managing stress is an essential and ethical skill for all social workers to develop and this stress management intervention provides an opportunity and holds space for reflection and practice of stress management techniques before entering the profession. Supporting the personal and professional skill development of ongoing generations of social workers in this way promotes healthy, sustainable practitioners who can provide the highest level of service to its clients.