A personal history of trauma and experience of secondary traumatic stress, vicarious trauma, and burnout in mental health workers: A systematic literature review.

Abstract

Secondary traumatic stress (STS), vicarious trauma (VT), and burnout (BO) are work-related outcomes commonly ascribed to mental health workers, given their exposure to clients' traumatic experiences. It is theorized that a worker's own history of trauma increases the occurrence of these outcomes, through retraumatization/activation of threat cues during client interactions and overinvolvement with a client's progress. Given the inconsistencies in the literature and the ubiquity of trauma among workers, a systematic review was conducted to examine the association of personal trauma and the 3 related, but separate, work outcomes. A systematic search strategy was used across relevant research databases (Cochrane, JSTOR, PsycINFO, PubMed) for empirical studies conducted from 2000-2021. In accordance with PRISMA guidelines, a four-phase selection process was used, resulting in 39 studies identified meeting the inclusion criteria. A clear (positive) association between personal trauma history and STS and VT were identified, whereas mostly null findings were observed in regard to BO. The majority of studies were conducted in Western countries, adopted questionnaires as the primary means of data collection, and all but one were cross-sectional in design. In addition to a lack of diversity in study design, there were conceptual limitations to the research conducted (e.g., treating victims as a unitary group, neglecting the inclusion of mechanisms). To assist in moving the field forward, five research recommendations are outlined with the goal of creating greater clarity in the work-outcomes literature and increased nuance in how personal trauma is understood. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).