Prevalence and Predictors of School Social Workers’ Professional Quality of Life

Date of Conferral

10-13-2023

Degree

Doctor of Social Work (DSW)

School

Social Work

Advisor

Adam Quinn

Abstract

This study examined the professional quality of life (PQL) of school social workers working in New Orleans, Louisiana. The existence of a direct relationship between helping professionals’ well-being and providing services to clients who have experienced trauma has been well documented. In this study, the PQL theory provided a framework for understanding the negative and positive aspects of helping or serving trauma-exposed clients. The negative aspects, collectively referred to as compassion fatigue, included burnout (BO) and secondary traumatic stress (STS), while the positive aspects were referred to as compassion satisfaction (CS). The study employed a nonexperimental, cross-sectional, quantitative design to investigate the prevalence rates of STS, BO, and CS in New Orleans school social workers. It also investigated the relationship between PQL factors and caseload size, caseload trauma, and time spent in direct services with client trauma. Prevalence data were collected from 53 school social workers using the PQL scale. Regression analyses were performed to determine the existence of predictive relationships between PQL factors and caseload size, percentage of trauma-exposed clients on caseload, and time spent in direct services with client trauma. The findings indicated that STS is more likely when more than half of a practitioner’s caseload is comprised of trauma exposed clients. These findings can be used for positive social change by reinforcing the need for schools to provide a trauma-informed approach when developing and providing resources to school social workers.

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