Examining the secondary traumatic stress level of psychological support professionals in terms of rumination and distress tolerance and comparison with the general population

Professionals who provide psychological support may be more likely to experience secondary traumatic stress because they work with individuals who have been through traumatic experiences; and this, in turn, negatively affects their work and social lives. The purpose of this study is to examine the possible secondary traumatic stress that psychological support professionals may experience and its relationships with distress tolerance and rumination, in addition to comparing these variables with the general population. The sample of this research consists of 157 individuals between the ages of 20-67 with an average age of 34.79 (sd = 9.51). Out of those 90 were professional providing psychological support and 67 were professionals who does not carry any risk in terms of secondary traumatic stress. Secondary Traumatic Stress Scale, Distress Tolerance Scale, Repetitive Thinking Scale and Demographic Information Form were used as data collection tools in the study. The study employed the relational and comparative models which are quantitative research methods; and the collected data was analyzed using the SPSS 27 program. The relationship between the variables was examined by Pearson correlation coefficient analysis, and the differentiation of these variables between two groups was determined by t-test analysis in independent groups. The analyses showed that there were statistically significant relationships between the variables and that all variables except repetitive thinking differed significantly between the two groups. The findings were discussed in the light of the literature. Keywords: Secondary Traumatic Stress, Rumination, Distress Tolerance Capacity