Assessing Shared Trauma Among Master of Social Work Students: A Validation Study

Purpose: This study reports on the validation of the COVID-19 Quality of Professional Practice Survey (C19QPPS) among Master of Social Work (MSW) students in field training. The purpose of this study is to validate the COVID-19 Quality of Professional Practice Survey (C19QPPS) among MSW students. Unique to our study is the MSW student population and the conditions of COVID-19. The population of students training in their field placements shares both similarities and differences with professional social workers employed in the field. The C19QPPS was adapted specifically to measure shared trauma among COVID-19 but has yet to be validated. The instrument is referred to interchangeably in the literature as the QPPS, PKQPPS, and the STPPG. This study is part of a larger research project that aims to generate knowledge about MSW students’ experiences of shared traumatic stress and STS in their field placements. Validating the instrument will ensure that we can accurately capture students’ experiences of shared trauma. Method: The C19QPPS measures the unique construct of shared trauma among social work practitioners related to COVID-19 but has yet to be validated with any population. The parent study is cross-sectional and includes both quantitative and qualitative methods, including The Quality of Professional Practice Survey (C19QPPS), the STS Scale, demographic questions, and six open-ended questions for analysis in order to explore MSW experiences of secondary trauma and shared trauma in their field placement during COVID-19. To determine validity, data were collected from 145 graduate students and a model-generating form of structural equation modeling was employed. Results: The priori theory of three shared traumatic stress factors, Technique, Growth, and Trauma were confirmed. The best-fitting model consisted of three factors with acceptable fit statistics (χ2 = 66.45, p = .00; RMSEA = 0.07, 90% CI [0.04, 0.10]; CFI = 0.95; TLI = 0.93). Discussion: Results validated the C19QPPS for evaluating MSW students’ shared trauma related to COVID-19. The findings support utilizing the C19QPPS to evaluate shared trauma among professional social workers. Conclusion: The results of this study support the use of the C19QPPS for evaluating shared traumatic stress among MSW students related to COVID-19. The STPPG was developed to understand the nuances and nature of clinicians’ dual trauma exposure. The scale can be adapted to any collective trauma, previously adapted for 9/11 (the Post 9/ 11 Quality of Professional Practice Survey/QPPS) and Hurricane Katrina (the Post-Katrina Quality of Professional Practice Survey/PKQPPS). It recently was adapted to measure shared trauma during COVID-19 (C19QPPS) but was not validated before this study. Our results are consistent with the previous validation of the instrument when employed post-Katrina and further support the claim that a separate instrument is necessary to capture clinician’s exposure to traumatic events from pathways that are both personal and professional. Our CFA confirmed the a priori theory that informs the instrument related to the constructs of compassion fatigue/secondary trauma, post-traumatic growth, symptom categories of PTSD, primary and secondary trauma, and shared trauma.