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ABSTRACT
Work-related mental distress and its impact on employees’ working life is a mounting issue among Finnish social workers. This article focuses on identifying the factors associated with child welfare social workers’ occupational well-being. The occupational well-being of Finnish child welfare social workers (N = 364) and social workers whose duties do not include child protection work (N = 524) was explored and compared with each other using t-test statistics and logistic regression analysis. The data, collected in 2014/2015, were obtained from an ongoing longitudinal cohort study on work-related well-being among Finnish public sector employees. A multi-dimensional and holistic approach to occupational well-being was used as the outline for the analysis and comparison of the two groups. Child protection social workers reported higher levels of burnout and secondary traumatic stress than social workers without child protection duties. Despite these burdens, both groups showed a similar level of general health, compassion satisfaction and overall occupational well-being. Individual and organizational factors associated with high occupational well-being were identified. Supervision was found to be an important supporting element. This study identified multiple determinants related to social workers’ occupational well-being, comprising positive and negative elements with regard to organizational and individual factors.
TIIVISTELMÄ
Työhön liittyvä ahdistus ja sen vaikutus työntekijöihin työelämässä on kasvava ongelma suomalaisten sosiaalityöntekijöiden keskuudessa. Tässä tutkimuksessa pyritään tunnistamaan lastensuojelun sosiaalityöntekijöiden työhyvinvointiin yhteydessä olevia tekijöitä. Lastensuojelun sosiaalityöntekijöiden (N = 364) sekä sosiaalityöntekijöiden, joiden työhön ei kuulu lastensuojelutehtäviä (N = 524), työhyvinvointia vertailtiin käyttäen t-testiä ja logistista regressioanalyysia. Aineisto kerättiin vuosina 2014/2015 osana pitkittäistutkimusta, jossa tutkitaan suomalaisten julkisen sektorin työntekijöiden työhyvinvointia. Kahden ryhmän analysoinnissa ja vertailussa työhyvinvointia hahmotettiin moniulotteisesti ja kokonaisvaltaisesti. Lastensuojelun sosiaalityöntekijät raportoivat suurempaa työuupumusta ja sekundääritraumatisoitumista kuin ne sosiaalityöntekijät, joiden työhön ei kuulunut lastensuojelutehtäviä. Kuitenkin ryhmien yleinen terveydentila, asiakastyössä koettu myötätuntotyytyväisyys ja kokonaistyöhyvinvointi olivat samaa tasoa. Lisäksi selvitettiin työhyvinvointiin yhteydessä olevia yksilöllisiä ja organisatorisia tekijöitä. Työnohjaus havaittiin tärkeäksi tukevaksi osatekijäksi. Tutkimuksessa tunnistettiin useita organisatorisia ja yksilöllisiä tekijöitä, jotka olivat sekä positiivisia että negatiivisia sosiaalityöntekijöiden työhyvinvoinnin kannalta.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Andreas Baldschun is a licensed social worker and doctoral trainee at the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Eastern Finland. Having a training in social work and social pedagogy, he has worked in several contexts of child protection and adult social work in Germany and Finland. He also participated in the research project on social workers’ wellbeing. His research interests are the structure of social workers’ occupational well-being, the implementation of occupational well-being in social welfare organizations and client satisfaction.
Juha Hämäläinen is professor of social work and Head of the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Eastern Finland. In addition, he is professor of the Faculty of Social Studies at the University of Ostrava, Czech Republic and Vice-Director of the Centre for Child Protection Research at Fudan University, China. His research interests are in the history and theory of child protection and child welfare policy, the tradition of social pedagogy, and comparative research of social work, social care and social welfare. He has also distinguished himself in parenthood, family and youth research.
Pertti Töttö is professor of methods in social research at the University of Eastern Finland. Having a training in philosophy, sociology, and statistics, he has worked in several Finnish universities. His research interests have been classical German sociological tradition, realist philosophy of science, and the relation of qualitative and quantitative research. He is currently working on the problem of using statistical models in testing scientific hypothesis about causal mechanisms. He is specialized in structural equation modeling.
Otso Rantonen is a licensed psychologist and doctoral trainee in the Department of Psychology at the University of Turku, Finland. He has worked at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health where he participated in initiating and carrying out the research project on social workers’ well-being. He also collaborates with the Karolinska Institute, Sweden, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and University of Eastern Finland. His research focus is mental health, mindfulness and social work. At the University of Turku he teaches courses on statistics and psychology.
Paula Salo is professor of psychology at the University of Turku, Finland. She has also worked at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health as a part of the Finnish Public Sector study group and as principal investigator of the research project on social workers’ well-being. Her research interests are psychosocial risk factors at work, health and work disability, and development and consequences of sleep disturbances among working aged population.