[Mental Stress of Professionals in Residential Care for Children and Adolescents].

An increasingly important issue is the mental strain of professionals in residential care for children and adolescents. However, only few studies investigate mental strain and overload of professionals in an educational context in general and even less in youth welfare institutions. The goal of this study was to examine mental strain experiences of professionals with the "Perceived Stress Questionnaire" (PSQ) in youth welfare institutions, as well as to investigate the relationship between age, duration of employment in this work environment and gender of participants. A total of 426 care providers participated in the online survey. The results tend to show higher stress levels among younger professionals and significantly higher values in tension compared to older employees, but no effect of gender. Furthermore, there is no relation between stress experience and duration of employment in this work environment, but a significant correlation between a feeling of security from violence in this institution and stress level. The total score for stress experience of professionals is similar to that of healthy adults, while in the subscales compared to the norm sample professionals show higher scores on requirements in terms of deadlines and time pressure as well as on tension. The results indicate a high vulnerability of young professionals, which could be addressed by institutional interventions. More studies are needed to clarify causal relationships.