Levels of traumatization and resiliency factors in Filipino foreign domestic workers of Hong Kong

Despite of the effort in researching in traumas and their risk factors, little attention was paid to foreign domestic workers (FDWs). The purpose of this study was to understand levels of stress faced by Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong and highlight their ways of coping with such aversive situations, in hopes to improve their psychosocial adjustment and to promote their mental wellbeing. A total of 100 Filipino female FDWs in Hong Kong completed self-report questionnaires on their exposure of direct and indirect trauma, level of posttraumatic stress, resiliency, social support, and feminist identity. The findings revealed that both direct and indirect traumas are positively related to posttraumatic stress, and indirect trauma showed higher impact on the stress level than direct trauma. Furthermore, the two types of traumas have a significantly positive correlation among each other. As expected, high level of resilience was associated with lower posttraumatic stress among FDWs. Surprisingly, non-significant correlations between social support and feminist identity as related to posttraumatic stress of FDWs in Hong Kong were found. Implications and limitations of analyses are discussed; further research for FDWs in Hong Kong is suggested to include larger sample sizes and the qualitative research design.