Investigation of the relationship between the empathic tendency levels of social work professionals and their secondary traumatic stress symptoms

This research is a relational scanning model that aims to reveal the relationship between the empathic tendency levels of social work professionals and their secondary traumatic stress symptoms. Basically, the study examines the concepts of social work, empathic tendency, trauma, and secondary traumatic stress. The data of the study were applied to the Personal Information Form prepared by the researcher to obtain the sociodemographic information of the participants, the Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms Scale developed to measure the secondary traumatic stress symptoms, and the Empathic Tendency Scale developed to measure the empathic tendency levels. In order to collect the data of the study, a questionnaire was applied to the social service professional worker in İstanbul province nine districts. The obtained data were analyzed with the SPSS statistical analysis package program. At the end of the study, it was seen that there is a significant relationship between secondary traumatic stress and working time and age, but not a significant relationship in terms of gender, marital status and occupation group. In terms of empathic tendency, it was observed that there was a significant relationship between gender, marital status and age, but not between duration of employment and marital status. On the other hand, as the repetitive thoughts of social workers increase, the level of empathic tendency decreases. Keywords: Social Work, Empathic Tendency, Trauma, Secondary Traumatic Stress