Thriving not just SurvivingEnhancing Resilience in Social
Workers.
Messages from Research
Louise Grant
Gail Kinman
University of Bedfordshire
Social work and stress
• We know Social Work is satisfying, but we also know that it is
stressful
• Evidence is that Stress is related to poor psychological and
physical health, and leads to illness, absence and impaired
performance in Social Workers
• Stress has been identified as a particular problem for trainees
and newly qualified Social Workers, an issue frequently raised
by Social Work Managers
• But some Social Workers are more resilient to stress than
others, the question is why? And how do we improve there
resilience?
(e.g. Coffey et al., 2009; Eborall & Garmeston, 2001; Lloyd et al., 2002)
The importance of resilience to wellbeing
and professional practice
 “Social workers need to develop the emotional resilience to
manage the challenges they will face” (Laming, 2009)
 “A key resource in social workers? May predict successful
coping” (Collins, 2008)
 “The most troubling and intractable situations exist when
performance difficulties occur in the context of staff who lack
accurate empathy, self awareness and self management skills”
(Morrison, 2007)
What is Resilience and
why do some people bounce back
“The general capacity for flexible and resourceful adaptation
to external and internal stressors” - (Klohen, 1996)
“Psychological resilience refers to effective coping and
adaptation although faced with loss hardship or adversity”
–
(Tugrade and Frederikson 2004)
“What might enable some workers to persist, endure and
thrive in their careers, compared to others who may
become ill and sometimes eventually leave the
profession?” - (Collins 2007)
Resilience: building the foundations
• Q. What are the individual factors that underlie resilience,
successful coping and wellbeing?
• A. Our view is:
– Emotional intelligence, self awareness gained via personal
reflection and effective social support mechanisms
• enhance resilience to stress
• foster wellbeing
• are key qualities for social workers “who fly”
Emotional intelligence, reflective ability
and associated competencies
• Emotional intelligence
– Evaluation and expression of emotion; emotional
regulation; the use of emotions in decision making
– Inter- and intra-personal aspects
• Reflective ability
– Self reflection, empathetic reflection and reflective
communication
• Empathy
₋ Perspective taking, empathetic concern and empathetic
distress
• Social competence
Aims and objectives of research:
• To develop interventions to enhance resilience and wellbeing in
social work students and social workers
• To gain insight into students’ understanding of resilience and
why it is important
• To examine emotional intelligence, reflective ability and
associated competencies as predictors of resilience and
wellbeing
• To explore ways in which reflective practice might enhance
resilience
What we did
• Content analysis of data that examines:
– what is resilience and why is it important for social
workers?
• Cross-sectional questionnaire study – to examine emotional
intelligence, reflective ability and associated competencies as
predictors of resilience and wellbeing
• An examination of student perceptions and experiences
during placements is underway
– Semi structured interviews
– Reflective accounts
Predictors of resilience and wellbeing
Sample
– 240 social work students (69% L1, 31% L2)
– 82% female, age range 19 – 53; 78% UK nationals
Measures
– Emotional intelligence (Schutte et al., 1997)
– Reflective ability (Aukes et al., 2007)
– Empathy: 3 dimensions (perspective taking, empathetic
concern, personal distress) (Davis, 1983)
– Social competence (Sarason et al., 1984)
– Resilience (Wagnild & Young, 1993)
– Psychological distress (Goldberg & Williams, 1987)
Our research found
• 43% of trainee and newly qualified social workers achieved
scores indicative of “caseness” levels of psychological distress
• Social work students were more resilient and less distressed if
they:
– were more emotionally intelligent (p<.001)
– had stronger reflective abilities across all domains (p<.001),
especially empathetic reflection
– were more socially competent (p<.01)
– had more empathetic concern, but less empathetic distress
(p<.01 and p<.001)
• High empathy= positive, but high empathy without empathetic
reflection = negative
So this means that
• Those who are more emotionally intelligent are more resilient
to stress which, in turn, impacts on wellbeing
Emotional
intelligence
Resilience
Full mediation demonstrated
Psychological health (from r = -.29, p<.001 to r = .07, non sign.)
Physical health (from r = -.19, p<.01 to r = -.10, non sign.)
Psychological
and physical
health
How can knowledge gained be applied to
support social workers?
• Reflection in supervision is important as a self protective
mechanism
• Supervision should have a more explicit focus on emotion
management as enhancing emotional intelligence can aid
resilience
• Social Workers should have help in identifying different stress
coping strategies-.
– (for students we are running Wellbeing Days –
encompassing cognitive, social support, relaxation and
practical skills)
Resilient Social Workers
Key features of resilient social workers are those
who are and are supported to be:• Confident
• Optimistic
• Reflective and looking to improve
• To achieve goals
So
Keep on going, be proud of your
achievements and celebrate your
success