Login Register Cart 0
Generic placeholder image

Current Psychiatry Research and Reviews

Editor-in-Chief

ISSN (Print): 2666-0822
ISSN (Online): 2666-0830

Back
Journal Home About Journal Editorial Board Current Issue Volumes/Issues
Subscribe
Cross-Sectional Study

The Psychological Health and Professional Well-being of Operators Working with Forced Migrants in Italy: A Cross-sectional Epidemiological Study

Author(s): Francesca Tessitore, Alessia Caffieri*, Claudia Giordano, Giovanna Celia and Giorgia Margherita

Volume 20, Issue 3, 2024

Published on: 01 January, 2024

Page: [270 - 290] Pages: 21

DOI: 10.2174/0126660822272705231121111221

Price: $65

Abstract

Objective: Although the related dimensions of professional quality of life, secondary traumatic stress, and emotion regulation have been widely investigated in the field of helping and healthcare professionals, these dimensions combined have scarcely been explored in the field of workers with forced migrants. The aims of the present study are twofold. First, it aims to investigate the prevalence of secondary traumatic stress levels, emotion regulation, burnout, and compassion satisfaction in professionals working with forced migrants in Italy. Second, it aims to explore the associations between some socio-demographic and work-related characteristics and the psychological health and professional well-being status of professionals.

Methods: An online survey was administered via Google Modules to the Italian associations and Third Sector entities working in the field of forced migration from May 2021 to March 2022. A total of 264 professionals (mean age: 39.9; 76.1% females) responded to the survey.

Results: On the background of good levels of psychological health and professional wellbeing, significant differences emerged in mental health status and professional quality of life related to professional roles, age, gender, and geographic provenience.

Conclusion: Understanding the psychological health and professional well-being of those working with asylum seekers and refugees is crucial in providing appropriate supportive healthcare interventions which might be able to take care of professionals’ well-being as well as of their beneficiaries themselves.

« Previous
[1]
Tessitore F, Gallo M, Cozzolino M, Margherita G. The frame of Nigerian sex trafficking between internal and external usurpers: A qualitative research through the gaze of the female Nigerian cultural mediators. Int J Appl Psychoanal Stud 2023; 1-15.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/aps.1759]
[2]
Troisi G, Margherita G, Caffieri A. Migrant women and gender-based violence: Focus group with operators. J Prev Interv Community 2022; 50(3): 286-301.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10852352.2021.1918829] [PMID: 34101543]
[3]
Brooks MA, Dasgupta A, Taşğın NŞ, et al. Secondary traumatic stress, depression, and anxiety symptoms among service providers working with syrian refugees in Istanbul, Turkey. J Immigr Minor Health 2022; 24(6): 1421-30.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10903-022-01344-6] [PMID: 35212824]
[4]
Gozzoli C, Leo AD. Receiving asylum seekers: Risks and resources of professionals. Health Psychol Open 2020; 7(1)
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2055102920920312] [PMID: 32528718]
[5]
Graffin N. The emotional impacts of working as an asylum lawyer. Refug Surv Q 2019; 38(1): 30-54.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/rsq/hdy019]
[6]
Guskovict KL, Potocky M. Mitigating psychological distress among humanitarian staff working with migrants and refugees: A case example. Adv Soc Work 2018; 18(3): 965-82.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.18060/21644]
[7]
Grimm T, Georgiadou E, Silbermann A, Junker K, Nisslbeck W, Erim Y. Distress, main burdens, engagement motivators and needs of fulltime and volunteer refugee aid workers. Psychother Psychosom Med Psychol 2017; 67(8): 345-51.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1055/s-0043-100096] [PMID: 28454191]
[8]
Borho A, Georgiadou E, Grimm T, et al. Professional and volunteer refugee aid workers–depressive symptoms and their predictors, experienced traumatic events, PTSD, burdens, engagement motivators and support needs. Int J Environ Res Public Health 2019; 16(22): 4542.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16224542] [PMID: 31744176]
[9]
Wirth T, Mette J, Nienhaus A, Schillmöller Z, Harth V, Mache S. “This isn’t just about things, it’s about people and their future”: A qualitative analysis of the working conditions and strains of social workers in refugee and homeless aid. Int J Environ Res Public Health 2019; 16(20): 3858.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16203858] [PMID: 31614734]
[10]
Wirth T, Mette J, Prill J, Harth V, Nienhaus A. Working conditions, mental health and coping of staff in social work with refugees and homeless individuals: A scoping review. Health Soc Care Community 2019; 27(4): e257-69.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/hsc.12730] [PMID: 30821875]
[11]
Akkurt YM. Secondary traumatic stress on lawyers working with migrants. Göç Araştırmaları Dergisi 2022; 8(2): 351-404.
[12]
Roberts F, Teague B, Lee J, Rushworth I. The prevalence of burnout and secondary traumatic stress in professionals and volunteers working with forcibly displaced people: A systematic review and two meta-analyses. J Trauma Stress 2021; 34(4): 773-85.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jts.22659] [PMID: 33772884]
[13]
Živanović M, Vukčević Marković M. Latent structure of secondary traumatic stress, its precursors, and effects on people working with refugees. PLoS One 2020; 15(10): e0241545.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0241545] [PMID: 33125384]
[14]
Denkinger JK, Windthorst P, Rometsch-Ogioun El Sount C, et al. Secondary traumatization in caregivers working with women and children who suffered extreme violence by the ‘Islamic State’. Front Psychiatry 2018; 9: 234.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00234] [PMID: 29922186]
[15]
Figley CR. Compassion fatigue: Coping with secondary traumatic stress disorder. In: Those who treat the traumatized. Taylor & Francis Ltd 1995.
[16]
Ludick M, Figley CR. Toward a mechanism for secondary trauma induction and reduction: Reimagining a theory of secondary traumatic stress. Traumatology 2017; 23(1): 112-23.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/trm0000096]
[17]
Stamm BH. Secondary Traumatic Stress: Self-Care Issues for Clinicians, Researchers, and Educators. Sidran Press 1999.
[18]
Stamm BH. The Concise ProQOL Manual. Pocatello 2010.
[19]
Bohleber W. Remembrance, trauma and collective memory: The battle for memory in psychoanalysis. Int J Psychoanal 2007; 88(2): 329-52.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1516/V5H5-8351-7636-7878] [PMID: 17392053]
[20]
Tessitore F, Margherita G. Land of care seeking: Pre- and post-migratory experiences in asylum seekers’ narratives. Commun Psyc Global Persp 2020.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1285/i24212113v6i1p74]
[21]
Margherita G, Tessitore F. From individual to social and relational dimensions in asylum-seekers’ narratives: A multidimensional approach. Eur J Psychother Couns Health 2019; 21(2): 96-111.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13642537.2019.1599977]
[22]
Tessitore F, Parola A, Margherita G. Mental health risk and protective factors of Nigerian male asylum seekers hosted in southern Italy: A culturally sensitive quantitative investigation. J Racial Ethn Health Disparities 2023; 10(2): 730-42.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40615-022-01260-3] [PMID: 35169994]
[23]
Tessitore F. The Asylum Seekers Photographic Interview (ASPI): Evaluation of a new method to increase Nigerian asylum seekers’ narrative meaning-making after trauma. Psychol Trauma 2022; 14(1): 66-79.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/tra0000913] [PMID: 34435812]
[24]
Tessitore F. The psychoanalytic clinic to the proof of social and humanitarian emergencies: Assim’s case. Int J Psychoanal Educ: Subject. Action & Society 2021; 1(2): 1-13.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.32111/SAS.2021.1.2.1]
[25]
Levine HB. Psychoanalysis and Trauma. Psychoanal Inq 2014; 34(3): 214-24.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07351690.2014.889475]
[26]
Laub D. Traumatic shutdown of narrative and symbolization. In: Psychoanalysis and Holocaust Testimony. Routledge 2017.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781315717456-5]
[27]
Boden MT, Westermann S, McRae K, et al. Emotion regulation and posttraumatic stress disorder: A prospective investigation. J Soc Clin Psychol 2013; 32(3): 296-314.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1521/jscp.2013.32.3.296]
[28]
Laub D, Lee S. Thanatos and massive psychic trauma: the impact of the death instinct on knowing, remembering, and forgetting. J Am Psychoanal Assoc 2003; 51(2): 433-64.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/00030651030510021201] [PMID: 12866753]
[29]
Laub D, Auerhahn NC. Probing the minds of nazi perpetrators: The use of defensive screens in two generations. Int J Psychoanal 2020; 101(2): 355-74.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00207578.2020.1743064] [PMID: 33952047]
[30]
Adams MC, Kivlighan DM III. When home is gone: An application of the multicultural orientation framework to enhance clinical practice with refugees of forced migration. Prof Psychol Res Pr 2019; 50(3): 176-83.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pro0000230]
[31]
Stamm BH. The proQOL manual. 2023. Available from: https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=223baf2a172af85f96417ee10a575642382896bd (Access in date 4.06.2023).
[32]
Geoffrion S, Lamothe J, Morizot J, Giguère CÉ. Construct validity of the professional quality of life (ProQoL) scale in a sample of child protection workers. J Trauma Stress 2019; 32(4): 566-76.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jts.22410] [PMID: 31265178]
[33]
Nonnis M, Pirrone MP, Cuccu S, Agus M, Pedditzi ML, Cortese CG. Burnout syndrome in reception systems for illegal immigrants in the mediterranean. A quantitative and qualitative study of italian practitioners. Sustainability 2020; 12(12): 5145.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12125145]
[34]
Gemignani M, Giliberto M. Constructions of burnout, identity, and self-care in professionals working toward the psychosocial care of refugees and asylum seekers in Italy. J Construct Psychol 2020; 1-23.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10720537.2019.1700853]
[35]
Guhan R, Liebling-Kalifani H. The experiences of staff working with refugees and asylum seekers in the United Kingdom: A grounded theory exploration. J Immigr Refug Stud 2011; 9(3): 205-28.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15562948.2011.592804]
[36]
Akinsulure-Smith AM, Espinosa A, Chu T, Hallock R. Secondary traumatic stress and burnout among refugee resettlement workers: The role of coping and emotional intelligence. J Trauma Stress 2018; 31(2): 202-12.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jts.22279] [PMID: 29669182]
[37]
Mavratza T, Apostolara P, Adamakidou T, et al. Professional quality of life in greek health professionals working with refugees and migrants. Mater Sociomed 2021; 33(2): 94-9.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.5455/msm.2021.33.94-99] [PMID: 34483735]
[38]
Lusk M, Terrazas S. Secondary trauma among caregivers who work with mexican and central american refugees. Hisp J Behav Sci 2015; 37(2): 257-73.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0739986315578842]
[39]
Radeka M, Hicks RE. Vicarious exposure to trauma in australian migration agents: The role of empathy and psychological capital in compassion satisfaction. GSTF Journal of Psychology 2018; 4(1)
[http://dx.doi.org/10.5176/2345-7929_4.1.105]
[40]
De Leo A, D’Adamo G, Morozzi C, Gozzoli C. Taking care of forced migrants together: Strengths and weaknesses of interorganizational work from the perspective of social workers. Int J Environ Res Public Health 2023; 20(2): 1371.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20021371] [PMID: 36674126]
[41]
De Leo A, Cotrufo P, Gozzoli C. The refugee experience of asylum seekers in italy: A qualitative study on the intertwining of protective and risk factors. J Immigr Minor Health 2022; 24(5): 1224-36.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10903-021-01296-3] [PMID: 34669089]
[42]
Măirean C. Emotion regulation strategies, secondary traumatic stress, and compassion satisfaction in healthcare providers. J Psychol 2016; 150(8): 961-75.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00223980.2016.1225659] [PMID: 27629057]
[43]
Benuto LT, Yang Y, Bennett N, Lancaster C. Distress tolerance and emotion regulation as potential mediators between secondary traumatic stress and maladaptive coping. J Interpers Violence 2022; 37(13-14): NP11557-81.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0886260520967136] [PMID: 33076751]
[44]
Meadors P, Lamson A, Swanson M, White M, Sira N. Secondary traumatization in pediatric healthcare providers: Compassion fatigue, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress. Omega (Westport) 2010-2010 60(2): 103-28.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.2190/OM.60.2.a] [PMID: 20222232]
[45]
Buchanan M, Anderson JO, Uhlemann MR, Horwitz E. Secondary traumatic stress: An investigation of Canadian mental health workers. Traumatology 2006; 12(4): 272-81.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1534765606297817]
[46]
Renkiewicz GK, Hubble MW. Secondary traumatic stress in emergency services systems (STRESS) project: quantifying and predicting compassion fatigue in emergency medical services personnel. J Spec Oper Med 2021; 21(1): 55-64.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.55460/AO3Y-HY3W] [PMID: 33721308]
[47]
Nangle MR, Henry JD, von Hippel C, Kjelsaas K. An empirical study of how emotion dysregulation and social cognition relate to occupational burnout in dentistry. Br Dent J 2019; 227(4): 285-90.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41415-019-0620-0] [PMID: 31444445]
[48]
Tessitore F, Caffieri A, Parola A, Cozzolino M, Margherita G. The role of emotion regulation as a potential mediator between secondary traumatic stress, burnout, and compassion satisfaction in professionals working in the forced migration field. Int J Environ Res Public Health 2023; 20(3): 2266.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20032266] [PMID: 36767632]
[49]
Palestini L, Prati G, Pietrantoni L, Cicognani E. La qualità della vita professionale nel lavoro di soccorso: Un contributo alla validazione italiana della Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL). Psicoter Cogn Comport 2009; 15(2): 205-27.
[50]
Cieslak R, Shoji K, Douglas A, Melville E, Luszczynska A, Benight CC. A meta-analysis of the relationship between job burnout and secondary traumatic stress among workers with indirect exposure to trauma. Psychol Serv 2014; 11(1): 75-86.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0033798] [PMID: 23937082]
[51]
Bride BE, Robinson MM, Yegidis B, Figley CR. Secondary traumatic stress scale. Res Soc Work Pract 2007; 2017: 1049731502239463.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1049731502239463]
[52]
Bride BE, Robinson MM, Yegidis B, Figley CR. Development and validation of the secondary traumatic stress scale. Res Soc Work Pract 2004; 14(1): 27-35.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1049731503254106]
[53]
Setti I, Argentero P. Vicarious trauma: A contribution to the Italian adaptation of the secondary traumatic stress scale in a sample of ambulance operators. Giunti Organizzazioni Speciali 2012; 264(59): 58-64.
[54]
Bride BE, Radey M, Figley CR. Measuring compassion fatigue. Clin Soc Work J 2007; 35(3): 155-63.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10615-007-0091-7]
[55]
Gratz KL, Roemer L. Multidimensional assessment of emotion regulation and dysregulation: Development, factor structure, and initial validation of the difficulties in emotion regulation scale. J Psychopathol Behav Assess 2004; 26(1): 41-54.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/B:JOBA.0000007455.08539.94]
[56]
Sighinolfi C, Norcini Pala A, Chiri LR, Marchetti I, Sica C. Difficulties in emotion regulation scale (DERS): The Italian translation and adaptation. Psicoter Cogn Comport 2010; 16(2): 141-70.
[57]
Corp IBM. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 280. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp 2021.
[58]
Rosenthal R, Cooper H, Hedges L. Parametric measures of effect size. In: Cooper H, Hedges LV, Eds. The Handbook of Research Synthesis. Russell Sage Foundation 1994; pp. 231-44.
[59]
Roh CY, Moon MJ, Yang SB, Jung K. Linking emotional labor, public service motivation, and job satisfaction: Social workers in health care settings. Soc Work Public Health 2016; 31(2): 43-57.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19371918.2015.1087904] [PMID: 26720584]
[60]
Shanafelt TD, Mungo M, Schmitgen J, et al. Longitudinal study evaluating the association between physician burnout and changes in professional work effort. Mayo Clin Proc 2016; 91(4): 422-31.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocp.2016.02.001] [PMID: 27046522]
[61]
Chaplain RP. Stress and Job Satisfaction: A study of English primary school teachers. Educ Psychol 1995; 15(4): 473-89.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0144341950150409]
[62]
Redmond P, McGuinness S. Explaining the gender gap in job satisfaction. SSRN Electron J 2019; 12703.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3475809]
[63]
Štefko R, Bačík R, Fedorko R, Horváth J, Propper M, Gavurová B. Gender differences in the case of work satisfaction and motivation. Polish J Manag Stud 2017; 16(1): 215-25.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.17512/pjms.2017.16.1.18]
[64]
McDuff EM. The gender paradox in work satisfaction and the protestant clergy. Sociol Relig 2001; 62(1): 1-21.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3712228]
[65]
Phelan J. The paradox of the contented female worker: An assessment of alternative explanations. Soc Psychol Q 1994; 57(2): 95-107.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2786704]
[66]
Geiling A, Böttche M, Knaevelsrud C, Stammel N. A comparison of interpreters’ wellbeing and work-related characteristics in the care of refugees across different work settings. BMC Public Health 2022; 22(1): 1635.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-14034-7] [PMID: 36038870]
[67]
Caponio T, Cappiali T. The persistent issue of refugees. Italian Politics 2017; 32(1): 175-93.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.3167/ip.2017.320111]
[68]
Ghebremariam Tesfau’ M, Picker G. The Italian postracial archive. Ethn Racial Stud 2021; 44(2): 195-214.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2020.1730924]
[69]
Oliveri F. Racialization and counter-racialization in times of crisis: Taking migrant struggles in Italy as a critical standpoint on race. Ethn Racial Stud 2018; 41(10): 1855-73.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2018.1391404]
[70]
Ambrosini M. ‘We are against a multi-ethnic society’: Policies of exclusion at the urban level in Italy. Ethn Racial Stud 2013; 36(1): 136-55.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2011.644312]
[71]
Merrill H. Migration and surplus populations: Race and deindustrialization in Northern Italy. Antipode 2011; 43(5): 1542-72.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8330.2011.00904.x]
[72]
Margherita G, Gargiulo A, Caffieri A. Sclerosi Multipla online: Un’analisi delle narrazioni dell’esperienza di sm tra illness e health blog. Psicologia della Salute 2020; 2: 5-24.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.3280/PDS2020-002001]
[73]
Caffieri A, Margherita G. The time of motherhood in a time of crisis: A longitudinal qualitative study. J Reprod Infant Psychol 2023; 1-17.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02646838.2023.2243487] [PMID: 37530408]
[74]
Turtiainen J, Anttila E, Väänänen A. Social work, emotion management and the transformation of the welfare state. J Soc Work 2022; 22(1): 68-86.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1468017320973586]
[75]
Rossi EL, Cozzolino M, Mortimer J, Atkinson D, Rossi KL. A brief protocol for the creative psychosocial genomic healing experience: The 4-stage creative process in therapeutic hypnosis and brief psychotherapy. Am J Clin Hypn 2011; 54(2): 133-52.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00029157.2011.605967] [PMID: 22125895]
[76]
Cozzolino M, Cocco S, Piezzo M, et al. A psychosocial genomics pilot study in oncology for verifying clinical, inflammatory and psychological effects of mind-body transformations-therapy (MBT-T) in breast cancer patients: Preliminary results. J Clin Med 2021; 10(1): 136.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm10010136] [PMID: 33401546]
[77]
Venuleo C, Mangeli G, Mossi P, et al. The cardiac rehabilitation psychodynamic group intervention (CR-PGI): an explorative study. Front Psychol 2018; 9: 976.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00976] [PMID: 29973895]
[78]
Margherita G, & Tessitore F. Facing the traumatic field in the clinical and social work with forced migrants through a psychodynamic perspective: From “Refugee Trauma” to the clinic of social links. Clinical Social Work Journal 2023; 51, 379–388(2023)
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10615-023-00894-y]
[79]
Tessitore F, Del Vecchio F, Cozzolino M, & Margherita G. “Unaccompanied social workers, unaccompanied families”: qualitative research on Italian professionals’ feelings and emotions on working with African refugee families. Journal of Social Work Practice 2023; 1-15.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02650533.2023.2284363]

Rights & Permissions Print Cite
© 2024 Bentham Science Publishers | Privacy Policy