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From NobleNewsOnline.com General Although investigators of exploited children often experience satisfaction in their work to prevent child victimization, research has shown that repeated exposure to child victims and exploitation or trauma-related events can also place investigators at risk of experiencing negative effects to their own well-being ( Figley, 1995; Figley, 1999; Ortlepp & Friedman, 2001; Rudolph, Stamm, & Stamm, 1997; Stamm, in press) . Examples of such negative effects include secondary or vicarious trauma, burnout, and compassion fatigue. These effects can be characterized by increased negative emotionality, low morale, and doubts about one's ability to help or make significant contributions to aid exploited children. When these negative effects reach more severe levels, investigators may experience trauma symptoms similar to those suffered by the victims they are helping, such as intrusive thoughts, more suspicious of others, distancing, and exaggerated startle responses.
Method
As a part of developing an empirically informed "safeguard program", analysts from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children served as participants in this experimental study (2003), which assessed levels of compassion satisfaction and fatigue, as well as symptoms of work-related secondary traumatic stress.
It was expected that interruptions (or breaks) to an individual's exposure to traumatic work-related stimuli could improve daily emotional and occupational functioning.
Based on this assumption, participants who had been randomly assigned to the experimental condition were required to leave the work site during 2 15-minute breaks and one lunch hour each day.
Participants in the control condition followed their regular routine of remaining at their desks during breaks and lunch.
All participants completed Compassion Satisfaction and Fatigue (CSF) Test (Stamm & Figley, 1996) as
pre-and post-tests to measure secondary trauma, burnout, and compassion satisfaction, as well as daily records to report emotional functioning and perceptions of work performance.
Results
Analyses of demographic data indicated that there were no significant differences between composition of the experimental and control groups in regards to age, gender, education, ethnicity, work experience, marital status, or number of children.
Results showed that newer employees with less than one year of experience working in a crisis-related field reported more negative emotions and doubts about their abilities to make significant contributions to aid victims.
In addition, results showed that compassion fatigue increased as a function of work experience in crisis-related fields.
That is, employees with more experience reported experiencing more symptoms consistent with compassion fatigue.
These findings suggest that long-term exposure to distressing images may make investigators more vulnerable to feeling emotionally overwhelmed.
A trend was also found suggesting that as the length of time working in crisis-related jobs increases so does the risk of burnout.
Follow-up
During a one-year follow-up (2004), the 12 original participants, along with six new analysts recently employed by the Center were asked to complete the CSF again.
Over the course of the year since the original study, the 12 analysts who participated in the original study had been exposed to training programs through “The Safeguard Program”, which included workshops that addressed the risks of secondary trauma.
The new employees had not yet attended any of the workshops offered through the program.
Moreover, analysts who had been categorized into the “less than one year” were re-categorized into the “1 to 4 years” group.
Two analysts who were previously in the “1 to 4 years” group were re-categorized into the “more than 4 years” category.
Discussion
While it is inevitable that viewing child pornography may increase one's risk of exposure to the effects of secondary trauma, if dealt with openly, such responses can be viewed as parallels to the victims' trauma responses and as such, are valuable clinical information; if denied or ignored, these same responses can lead to a change in their perspective which may impede professional judgment and interfere with one's personal life. Overall, the findings of this study supported the need to promote awareness of and interventions for self-care issues for child exploitation investigators. Findings also highlighted the importance of monitoring employees' well-being so that prevention programs can be established proactively to offset the development of severe secondary traumatization. The need for support resources for employees are also indicated by these findings, such as the establishment of safeguard programs, counseling, peer support, as well as management and employee awareness of secondary trauma and compassion fatigue.
The next article will highlight warning signs to better enable a supervisor in recognizing them and therefore minimizing the risk.
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Negative effects of helping exploited children can also jeopardize work productivity and employee satisfaction.