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A sample of 481 social workers from Manhattan participated in a study of the impact of the September 11, 2001 (9/11) World Trade Center (WTC) attacks. A variety of risk factors associated with posttraumatic stress and secondary trauma were examined in relation to shared traumatic stress (STS), a supraordinate construct reflecting the dual nature of exposure to traumatic events. Risk factors included attachment style, exposure to potentially traumatic life events, and enduring distress attributed to the WTC attacks. It was expected that clinicians' resilience would mediate the relationship between these risk factors and STS. Using path analytic modeling, the findings support the study's hypotheses that insecure attachment, greater exposure to potentially traumatic life events in general, and the events of 9/11 in particular are predictive of higher levels of STS. Contrary to expectation, enduring distress attributed to 9/11 was not associated with resilience. Resilience, however, was found to be a mediator of the relationships between insecure attachment, exposure to potentially traumatic life events, and STS but did not mediate the relationship between enduring distress attributed to 9/11 and STS. Implications for theory, research, and practice are discussed.

Purpose: While there are established instruments offering psychometrically sound measurement of primary or secondary trauma, none capture the essence of dual exposure for mental health professionals living and working in traumatological environments. Methods: This study examined the experience of 244 mental health workers who lived and worked in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. An instrument, the Shared Trauma and Professional Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (STPPG), a 14-item, Likert-type scale composed of three subscales (Technique-Specific Shared Trauma, Personal Trauma, and Professional Posttraumatic Growth), was developed to understand the nature of dual trauma exposure. Results: The STPPG supports the reciprocal nature of shared trauma and correlates well to existing measures for posttraumatic stress, secondary trauma, shared trauma, and posttraumatic growth. Discussion: The STPPG suggests that personal traumatic experience can impact professional practice, and client traumatic narratives influence one's personal trauma responses. Implications of STPPG for practice and future research are discussed.

Although clinicians can experience both traumatic stress and posttraumatic growth following primary and secondary exposure to traumatic events, there are inconsistencies in the professional literature as to whether a history of personal trauma serves as a risk factor. This present study examined 244 clinicians living and working in a post-Katrina environment. Using structural equation modeling, clinician’s trauma histories and primary and secondary traumatic stress were assessed in relationship to posttraumatic growth. It was expected that a greater number of traumatic life events would be related to higher levels of traumatic experience and growth. It was also expected that traumatic life experience would be associated with growth. Contrary to expectation, the initial evaluation of the path coefficients showed no significant paths between primary trauma and growth. A revised model was then refit with the inclusion of 2 latent variables, which yielded a better fit. The results showed that a greater number of traumatic life events were related to both primary and secondary traumatic stress but not growth. The latent variables revealed a statistically significant relationship between re-experiencing, which related to greater growth in 1 domain. Implications for theory development, clinical practice and policy, and future research are discussed.