| Helping professionals, such as social workers, emergency first responders and medical personnel are susceptible to traumatic stress reactions through indirect exposure to trauma via the traumatized population whom they serve. This phenomenon, known as secondary traumatic stress (STS), mimicking the symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder, can have an impact on a provider's work with his/her patient or have longer-term effects such as deciding to leave the profession. This study found that physicians' level of job stress was the strongest predictor of STS and that this relationship was also influenced by resiliency, ego strength and attachment style. Individuals with higher levels of resiliency and ego strength reported less traumatic stress symptoms. Secure attachment style was not found to be associated with STS symptoms but fearful attachment and anxious-avoidant attachment, when examined separately, were significant predictors of STS but shared variability with resiliency. Future research should examine the traumatic stress beliefs to determine if this impacts the development of traumatic stress symptoms. |
