When Traumas Intersect: A Mixed-Methods Examination of Teachers' Adverse Childhood Experiences and Their Professional Quality of Life (Poster 15)

• In Event: Promising Scholarship in Education Research: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research

Abstract

This explanatory sequential mixed methods study examines the relationship between teachers’ response to teaching challenges and benefits, perceptions of the experiences of adversity among students, Professional Quality of Life (ProQOL; i.e., compassion satisfaction, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress), and their personal history of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). After collecting and analyzing quantitative survey data from K-12th grade lead teachers across the United States (N=368) using multiple ordinary least squares regressions, qualitative semi-structured interviews (N=24) explored how teachers with different levels of ACEs (0, 1-3, and 4+) discuss their roles as teachers and make meaning of the experiences of stress and trauma among their students. Interviews were analyzed using a poststructuralist interview analysis strategy. Integration of the quantitative and qualitative results revealed that majority of teachers experienced moderate levels of secondary traumatic stress. Teachers who were more concerned with their ability to support students facing adversity were more likely to experience secondary traumatic stress and burnout symptoms. Teachers with a larger number of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) were more likely to experience secondary traumatic stress and burnout. Teachers in the high ACEs group (4+) most often identified their roles as encompassing social and emotional supports that are often unnoticed and responded to the experiences of adversity among their students with empathy. The results of this study suggest that trauma-informed approaches that support the whole teacher is necessary for sustaining a culture of care in schools.

Author

• Helen Min, University of Virginia
  Presenting Author