Is the Children's Home A Resilient Parent? The Investigation of Resilience Among Child Protection Social Workers

Krisztina Tarnokne Toro
Károli Gáspár Református Egyetem 1091 Budapest Kálvin Tér 9 . VAT: Hu 18060676

Abstract

The literature overview suggests that children in child protection face high risk to mental illness and this also has a strong effect on the wellbeing of their social workers. Studies show that social workers need to be balanced, motivated and they have to operate in a supportive work milieu in order to remain effective helpers. The research aims to investigate the resilience of child protection workers. The focus is on the interconnections between 1) the mental resilience and 2) the feelings and thoughts about work. In the research 247 persons were involved. 142 persons who were working in child protection belonged to the sample group; while 105 members of the control group have different profession. CD Risk Resilience Scale, demographic survey and self-constructed questionnaire were used for measuring. Level of resilience was higher among social workers in child protection than in the control group. While the perceived support and stress at workplace, the time spent in child protection service and the age had no significant influence on the workers’ resilience, the love of work and the experienced success (e.g. the love from their clients) improved it considerably. Our research shows that the higher resilience of social workers in child protection does not depend neither on the time spent in child protection nor the environmental effects. These results indicate the further investigation of the workplace setting. If more resilient people tend to select child protection as a profession it would be reasonable to improve their skills by supervisions or case conferences. Effective coping is necessary in this field due the heavy emotional burdens that cause high level of stress and burnout even in short run.





Presentation