Investigation of secondary traumatic stress and belief in a just world in employees in Family, Labor and Social Services Department

The Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Services offers social services with the aim of improving the welfare of the individual, family and society. It is frequently studied with individuals who have traumatic experiences in social services. Personnel serving individuals with trauma experiences become vulnerable to indirect traumas. The situations and events that they face with as a result of their jobs affect their emotions, thoughts and behaviors. The aim of this study is to investigate the Belief in a Just World, depending on the secondary traumatic stress levels, of the personnel who work in social services and have been in various positions. The participants of this study consisted of 197 personnel working in 13 institutions affiliated to Adana Provincial Directorate of Family, Labor and Social Services. 150 personnel who agreed to participate in the study and completed the scales completely constituted the sample of the study. To determine sociodemographic characteristics, Personal Information Form, Secondary Traumatic Stress Scale and Belief in a Just World Scale were used as data collection tools. This research is a descriptive model which aims to present and describe the current situation of social workers. As a result of the analyzes, it was concluded that the personnel with high secondary traumatic stress level have lower individual and general Belief in a Just World than the personnel with low secondary traumatic stress level. In addition, it was seen that secondary traumatic stress and Belief in a Just World do not show difference according to gender. These findings were discussed in the light of related literature.