Predictors of burnout, secondary traumatic stress, and compassion satisfaction among practitioners in Norwegian child advocacy centers.

Background: Practitioners at Child Advocacy Centers (CACs) are frequently exposed to indirect trauma through their job, yet there is a lack of knowledge on how this affects them emotionally.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the levels of burnout, secondary traumatic stress (STS), and compassion satisfaction among practitioners at Norwegian CACs, and possible individual or work-related predictors.

Participants And Setting: An electronic cross-sectional survey was sent to practitioners at Norwegian CACs. A total of 77 practitioners completed the survey (response rate 86.5 %).

Methods: Variables were measured with the Professional Quality of Life Scale, the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire, and questions on personal traumatic experiences, support, and supervision. Bivariate and multivariate mixed effects modeling analyses and logistic regression analyses were employed.

Results: The results showed relatively low levels of burnout and STS, and high levels of compassion satisfaction, compared to other studies of child protective and child welfare professionals. Work-related factors, but not individual factors, were found to predict all three outcome variables: Burnout was predicted by transformational leadership (p = .002) and laissez-faire leadership (p = .012), secondary traumatic stress by case supervision (p = .001), and compassion satisfaction by transformational leadership (p < .000), laissez-faire leadership (p = .028), and personal supervision (p = .023).

Conclusions: The results indicate that transformational leadership and supervision may protect against burnout and STS and promote compassion satisfaction in practitioners working at CACs. The type of supervision may be relevant, as case-focused supervision predicted STS, while personal supervision predicted compassion satisfaction.