Investigation of the relationship between perceived social support and secondary traumatic stress levels of psychosocial support staff

This research was conducted to investigate the relationship between the social support of psychosocial support personnel and the secondary traumatic stress levels they experienced. The Research was designed as a correlation from quantitative research models. The Working group is the 146 psychosocial support staff actively working in the public or private sector in the province of Ankara. In the study, the Multidimensional Perceived Social Support Scale was used to measure the perceived social support levels of the participants and the Post-traumatic Stress Symptoms Scale to measure secondary traumatic stress levels. The dependent variable of the research is secondary traumatic stress, the independent variable is perceived social support. As a result of the correlation test performed to determine the relationship between perceived social support and secondary traumatic stress, a moderate, inverse and significant relationship was found. Therefore, it can be stated that social support against the risk of secondary traumatic stress is a protective factor. In other results obtained from the research, the development of secondary traumatic stress varies according to variables such as age, gender, education and income level and the participants who felt the need for training had a higher level of secondary traumatic stress. It was found that the social work areas studied differentiate secondary traumatic stress and the highest secondary traumatic stress experienced in the children's welfare and the participants working in the fields of veterans and martyrs. In addition, it was concluded that the support received from institutions/organizations and managers is a determining factor that reduces secondary traumatic stress. According to these findings, it can be said that organizational support is also effective in the secondary traumatic stress level. In this context, the practices and measures to be developed against the risk of secondary traumatic stress should be planned to include the social support factor.