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Secondary traumatic stress (STS) threatens the well-being of child welfare workers and remains a prevalent problem among this population (Rienks, 2020). Studies have identified that higher resilience may be a protective factor against STS. Despite burgeoning recommendations to reduce STS and increase resilience among the child welfare workforce, few studies have investigated interventions that may improve these aspects of worker well-being. As a part of a five-year federally funded child welfare research initiative, the primary objective of this study was to investigate whether resilience and loving-kindness meditation (LKM) interventions improved STS and resilience among child welfare workers.
Methods:
This study implemented a 12-week, psychoeducation intervention, Resilience Alliance (RA) (ACS-NYU, 2011), using a pilot randomized clinical trial. The sample comprised 166 child welfare workers in a Midwestern state. All participants provided services directly to children and families. Participants were randomized into two groups: (1) A comparison group that participated in RA (n=83); and (2) An intervention group that participated in RA plus LKM (n=83). Data were collected via pre-, post-, and retrospective pre-test surveys that included the STS scale (Bride et al., 2004) and the brief resilience scale (BRS; Smith et al., 2008). Multilevel linear regression models tested for pre- and post-test differences and for retrospective pre- and post-test differences for both groups.
Results:
Findings demonstrated that participants had lower baseline STS (Comparison Group M=22.6, SD=13.8; Treatment Group M=22.87, SD=11.47) and higher resilience (Comparison Group M=16.75, SD=4.08; Treatment Group M=17.99, SD=3.41) when compared to previous studies (e.g., Baugerud et al., 2018; Pharris et al., 2022). Multilevel linear regression models were initially conducted using an interaction between condition and time to assess for group difference over time. No significant differences were found in STS or resilience between the comparison and treatment groups. We then removed the interaction effect and assessed for change over time. Results demonstrated participants in both groups experienced a statistically significant decrease in STS (b=-4.02, p=0.000) and increase in resilience (b=0.87, p=0.002) from pre-test to post-test. Results also demonstrated participants in both groups experienced a statistically significant decrease in STS (b=-18.19, p=0.000) and increase in resilience (b=1.21, p=0.03) comparing retroactive pre-test to post-test. While results demonstrated that the treatment and comparison groups experienced statistically significant improved STS and resilience, there were no statistically significant differences between the groups’ improvements, indicating that both interventions had similar effectiveness.
Conclusions and Implications:
This study contributes to the literature by being one of very few (e.g., Orsi-Hunt et al., 2023) to test the effectiveness of RA at improving STS and resilience among child welfare professionals. Despite ongoing concerns regarding STS among child welfare professionals, few studies have tested interventions to strengthen workforce well-being. Results from this study demonstrate that RA and LKM are promising interventions to reduce STS and strengthen resilience among direct service workers. More research is needed to investigate these interventions in other child welfare jurisdictions and contexts. Additionally, more research is needed to investigate these interventions with other child welfare populations such as with supervisors and administrators.