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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 10, No. 1
Publication Date: January 25, 2023
DOI:10.14738/assrj.101.13868.
Savage, A., Rabas, A., Buchanan, A. M., & Domingo, A. (2023). The Relationship Between Coping, Trauma, Job Demand, Job
Resources, and Burnout for Social Workers During the Covid-19 Pandemic. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, Vol - 10(1).
497-509.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
The Relationship Between Coping, Trauma, Job Demand, Job
Resources, and Burnout for Social Workers During the Covid-19
Pandemic
Amanda Savage
Touro University Worldwide Graduate
Audrey Rabas
Touro University Worldwide
Ann-Marie Buchanan
Department of Social Work at Lincoln Memorial University
Aldwin Domingo
Touro University Worldwide
ABSTRACT
One of the primary concerns of not-for-profit organizations is the exceptionally high
turnover rates due to employee burnout. During widespread health crises such as
the novel coronavirus 2019 (covid-19), the demand for the general public to access
not-for-profit services usually surges. In such cases, social workers must work
around the clock under strict guidelines with no breaks to assist those who are
experiencing various crises in their lives. The purpose of this quantitative multiple
linear regression study was to investigate how social workers’ job demand and job
resources during a pandemic, specifically during the covid-19 pandemic, impacted
their burnout experience working in not-for-profit organizations. The resulting
data indicated a significant, negative linear relationship between covid-19 coping
ratings and burnout. As individuals increased their coping strategies, the average
level of burnout decreased. Likewise, as individuals reported higher levels of self- efficacy and job autonomy, the average level of burnout dropped. There was also a
positive linear relationship between covid-19 trauma ratings and burnout. As
individuals reported higher trauma, the average level of burnout also increased.
Similarly, as individuals reported negative workload and negative client contact,
the average level of burnout also increased.
INTRODUCTION
One of the primary concerns of not-for-profit organizations is the exceptionally high turnover
rates due to employee burnout (Bright, 2020). During widespread health crises, such as the
novel Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) or the Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus
outbreak, and natural disasters, such as tsunamis, floods, and earthquakes, the demand for the
general public to access not-for-profit services usually surges (Abbas et al., 2020). In such cases,
social workers must work around the clock under strict guidelines with no breaks to assist
those who are experiencing various crises in their lives (Abbas et al., 2020). According to Abbas
et al. (2020), inflexible work schedules, increased demands for not-for-profit services, and
constrained resources are some of the factors that are likely to reduce job satisfaction while
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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol. 10, Issue 1, January-2023
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
increasing emotional exhaustion among workers leading to job stress. Aruru et al. (2020) also
maintained that prolonged exposure to job stress resulting from a widespread health crisis
results in burnout, characterized as a negative emotional response to an individual's career due
to prolonged exposure to stressful work environments. For instance, recent studies such as
Sasangohar et al. (2020) have reported that most employees responding to the COVID-19
pandemic have high burnout rates.
According to Bright (2020), the increase in burnout among social workers during the pandemic
resulted from the fact that social workers must provide the necessary care to clients
experiencing very challenging conditions in their lives in the midst of a pandemic. In such
instances, these frontline social workers may also increase their risk of contracting diseases
while ensuring that their clients are protected or supported (Cetrano et al., 2017). Widespread
health crises may affect social workers’ job burnout, job demand, and job resources during a
pandemic. This may be due to the challenges of balancing personal safety and family safety,
resulting in an intensified burnout experience among social workers (Cho & Song, 2017).
During the COVID-19 outbreak, statistics estimate that the demand for not-for-profit services
for humanitarian aid increased by 50%, with the unlikely event of recruiting over 230,000
healthcare workers to fill the current gap (Ferry et al., 2020). The increased demand for not- for-profit service delivery during the pandemic presents a key challenge for employees to
balance work and social life (Costakis et al., 2020). According to Berg-Weger and Morley (2020),
the long-term impacts of such exposure to traumatizing events are job dissatisfaction, low
performance, high turnover intentions, and burnout. Ferry et al. (2020) also reported that an
increase in burnout among social workers during a pandemic is likely to affect service delivery
in not-for-profit organizations, making it difficult for organizations to achieve their primary
goal of providing essential services to the public.
Employee burnout has, in recent years, received overwhelming attention from researchers.
Moreover, researchers have also recently reported that burnout rates among employees in not- for-profit organizations were higher during the COVID-19 pandemic than the time before the
COVID-19 pandemic (Hamler et al., 2020; Kaslow et al., 2020). Other related studies have
examined the negative implications of social worker burnout on victim care, organizational
performance, and individual safety (Fukui et al., 2019; Gavin et al., 2020; Hagemann et al.,
2020). Therefore, Hamler et al. (2020) recommended additional research to be conducted on
how people experience the various challenges (ex. Job demands, job resources, Trauma) during
widespread health crises, such as pandemic outbreaks or natural disasters, and how it can affect
the experience of burnout among employees in not-for-profit organizations where
humanitarian aid demand is usually invaluable.
The present study investigated the relationship of how social worker job demands, job
resources, along with their coping and traumatic experiences due to the COVID-19 pandemic,
affected the experience of burnout among the aforementioned social workers in not-for-profit
organizations in the United States to address the current gap in the research literature. The
study's findings may inform stakeholders in not-for-profit organizations on how various factors
(job demands, job resources, coping, and traumatic experiences due to the COVID-19
pandemic) may have a differential impact on the experience of burnout among social workers
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Savage, A., Rabas, A., Buchanan, A. M., & Domingo, A. (2023). The Relationship Between Coping, Trauma, Job Demand, Job Resources, and Burnout
for Social Workers During the Covid-19 Pandemic. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, Vol - 10(1). 497-509.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.101.13868
during a widespread health crisis and provide guidance shaping the needed support for the
heavily impacted social workers.
The outbreak of a worldwide health crisis has been documented to cause negative impacts on
employee burnout levels in not-for-profit organizations (Kaslow et al., 2020). Researchers have
suggested the need to explore how burnout affects job demand and job resources during a
pandemic, specifically during COVID-19 (Hamler et al., 2020; Kaslow et al., 2020). As argued by
Hennekam et al. (2020), the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the burden of
social workers in helping individuals who require support to deal with the pandemic. According
to Ingram (2020), the most conspicuous duties are caring for patients diagnosed with COVID- 19 in the isolation rooms, feeding them, and arranging burial plans for patients who succumb
to COVID-19. Kelly et al. (2020) also noted that during the COVID-19 pandemic, social workers
had various increases in job demands, which resulted in emotional exhaustion. According to
Kaslow et al. (2020), emotional exhaustion is caused by prolonged exposure to clients’
sufferings in their presence. The recollection of such traumatizing events is likely to cause job
stress that results in burnout (Launer, 2020). While burnout has received considerable
research in the past, Kelly and Hearld (2020) recommended additional research to be
conducted on how widespread health crises such as COVID-19 may directly impact the various
factors (job demands, job resources, along with their coping and traumatic experiences due to
the COVID-19 pandemic) that can predict, or shape, the experience of burnout among social
workers who work at not-for-profit organizations.
Konieczny (2018) argued that workers responding to health pandemics are usually faced with
various challenges such as lack of protective equipment, mistrust from the public, and
uncooperative family members who fear for their safety. With such responsibilities, there is a
need to investigate how employees’ perceptions and psychological coping to widespread health
crises, such as COVID-19, can impact the experience of burnout in social workers who work at
not-for-profit organizations. The present study addressed Kelly and Hearld’s (2020)
recommendations for additional research on how people experience the various challenges (ex.
Job demands, job resources, Trauma) during widespread health crises, such as the pandemic
outbreak, can affect the experience of burnout among employees in not-for-profit
organizations.
The purpose of this quantitative linear regression analysis study was to investigate how social
workers’ job demand and job resources during a pandemic, specifically during the COVID-19
pandemic, impacted their burnout experience. According to recent research, the current
burnout rate in social workers at not-for-profit organizations increased by 40% during the
COVID-19 pandemic (Adams & Walls, 2020). The surge in burnout rates among workers in not- for-profit organizations might be linked to increased job demands and constrained resources
that affect their service delivery (Lemmons et al., 2020). On the other hand, previous research
has not yet examined the differential effect of how social workers experience job demands, job
resources, coping mechanisms, and trauma experienced that have resulted from the current
COVID-19 pandemic upon the experience of burnout among the aforementioned social
workers.