Measurement Invariance Across Samples of Social Work Students in Singapore and Germany

• In Event: 31.083 - International Perspectives on Occupational Stress, Coping, and Resilience in the Helping Professions

Abstract

Daily hassles in helping professions have been found to be demanding, and often lead to the experience of occupational stress and burnout. Encountering clients’ critical life situations, and providing support to individuals on an ongoing daily basis, is demanding and can increase the risk for negative occupational experiences. Social work education is increasingly concerned with helping students develop the skills needed to thrive within a stressful profession.
This study examined cultural similarities and differences between social work students in Singapore and Germany regarding stress prevention, coping, and perceived stress. Cross-cultural differences can manifest as different latent factor structures, different means or variances for observed or latent variables, or different path coefficients between latent and latent or latent and observed variables. For example, it is possible for students from one country to perceive higher or more widely varying stress levels during their educational program than students from another country. It is also possible for respondents from one culture to respond more positively to specific stress-related items based on cultural norms, conceptions, beliefs, or practices. Respondents from one culture can also respond in a way that renders a factor structure validated in one setting inapplicable to another cultural setting.
These issues were examined using specific statistical procedures called measurement invariance methods. If a measure yields data that is consistent across cultures, it is said to be invariant to cultural context. The relationships between the observed variables for both stress prevention resources (Schwanzer, Lambert, & Ullrich, 2018) and perceived stress (Lambert, Butts, Schwanzer, & Ullrich, 2018) have been examined in separate samples, one from Singapore (over 300 respondents) and one from Germany (over 400 respondents). The construct of perceived stress was measured with the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS, Cohen, xxxx). The PSS is the most used measure of perceived stress in the helping professions. Stress prevention resources were measured using the Preventive Resources Inventory (PRI; Lambert & McCarthy, xxxx).
Overall, the results of this study suggest that the constructs of stress prevention resources and perceived stress function in similar ways for social workers from Singapore and Germany, suggesting their universal qualities. However, some important differences emerged that may suggest components of the occupational stress and coping processes that may not be universal across cultures. For example, the Perceived Control observed variable from the PRI was less strongly related to the overall construct of Stress Prevention and less strongly related to Perceived Stress in Singapore than it was in Germany. These results suggest that the construct of Perceived Control may be more salient to the prevention of occupational stress in western and individualistic countries than in Confucian or collectivist cultures.
This study demonstrates that the development and enhancement of stress prevention resources in social work students has the potential to help them feel more prepared for the stressors of the occupation. Relevant concepts for such resources include maintaining work-life balance, understanding the psychological and physiological symptoms of stress, and exploring coping strategies (e.g., mindfulness techniques, stress prevention strategies, etc.).

Authors

• Richard G. Lambert, University of North Carolina - Charlotte

• Andrea Daniela Schwanzer, Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences

• Annette Ullrich, Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg Stuttgart