Adverse Childhood Experiences Among MSW Students

ABSTRACT

Alarming rates of burnout, compassion fatigue, and turnover in the social work profession have focused attention on factors influencing risk and resilience among professional social workers and, more recently, social work students. This article explores the prevalence and relevance of early trauma among social work students and describes a cross-sectional, exploratory study aimed at determining frequency of adverse childhood experiences among Master of Social Work (MSW) students. Results reveal rates of adverse childhood experiences are much higher than those found in general population samples, university students, and child welfare employees. Implications for social work education are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• adverse childhood experiences
• burnout
• childhood adversity
• compassion fatigue
• professional stress
• resilience