Poster #214 - Stress and Self-Care Among Frontline Family Workers Serving Parents and Children

• In Event: 3-206 - Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: PS 13 Section - Social Policy

Integrative Statement

Stress and intervention programs are well documented for social workers and other human service professionals (Brinkborg, et al., 2011; Caringi, et al., 2017; Crowder & Sears, 2017; Kalliath & Kalliath, 2014; Schelbe, Radey, & Panisch, 2018), but there is currently little published literature on the experiences of paraprofessional frontline family workers (e.g., Alitz, et al., 2018; West, Berlin & Harden, 2018). The present study addresses this gap for a growing part of the social services work force. Drawing on data from a larger study of community action agencies, we examined reflective essays extracted from portfolios written by 99 agency staff of mixed education, ethnicity, age and job roles (such as home visitor) who were enrolled in Family Development Credential (FDC®) training as part of their work with low-income, mostly minority and immigrant families. FDC is a strengths-based training program to help families achieve their goals, with a strong additional focus on workers’ self-care. Essay excerpts were coded for types of stresses, current self-care practices, and unmet self-care and support needs. After identifying the most commonly mentioned themes, we performed a regression analysis of the relationship of total stresses discussed to the number of self-care practices. As shown in Table 1, work load (including paperwork requirements as well as case load) and a perceived imbalance between work and family were the most frequently mentioned stresses, followed closely by client crises; some workers also wrote about personal stresses (family issues and finances), as well as dissatisfaction with their agency’s climate. A variety of self-care practices were mentioned, with meditation or mindfulness being the most common. Other self-care practices included purposeful social contacts and taking breaks from work and home routine; physical self-care (diet and exercise); organizing; time management; removing distractions and “clutter”; and re-framing expectations of oneself. Unmet needs most often discussed concerned stress management and self-care skills, especially a balance between work and personal life. Regression analysis indicates a highly significant relationship between the number of stresses and number of self-care practices reported, with both linear (p=.003) and curvilinear (p=.02) components (see Figure 1). Specifically, workers discussing a moderate range of stresses mentioned the most self-care practices. Those describing no stresses in their essay reported fewer self-care practices. Most striking, however, is that workers discussing the highest number of stresses mentioned the very lowest number of self-care practices. The types of stresses reported by study participants are quite similar to those reported in the literature for social workers. Of particular note is stress related to paperwork, which has generally increased in recent years. The curvilinear relationship between number of stressors and self-care practices provides concrete evidence of a previously noted phenomenon in which beyond a given level of stressors, people’s ability to cope actively declines (e.g. Gibson & Weisner, 2002). Both these findings have important policy implications for addressing issues of work-load and stress among family workers, in order to increase worker retention and mental health and thus lead to better outcomes for the children and families they serve.

Authors

• Caroline Mavridis, University of Connecticut
  Presenting Author

• Sara Harkness, U. of Connecticut
  Non-Presenting Author

• Charles M. Super, University of Connecticut
  Non-Presenting Author