The hidden stressor of child welfare workers: client confidentiality as a barrier for coping with emotional work demands

Abstract

Studies show that client confidentiality can inhibit proper adaptation to emotional work stress, which can affect health and well‐being among help service professionals. There is a lack of knowledge on the link between confidentiality and symptoms of ill health. It is likely that confidentiality can be a hidden stressor that modifies coping strategies necessary for healthy adaptation to emotional work demands. The aim of the current paper was to investigate the influence of client confidentiality on different modes of coping among child welfare workers and possible variation according to proximity to clients and years of experience. The study included survey data among all child welfare workers (n = 142) situated at six office locations in a Norwegian city with a population of >150 000. The analyses included descriptive statistics, t‐test, analysis of variance and multiple linear regressions. The results showed that client confidentiality can interfere with a range of coping strategies which are important to reduce stress from emotionally demanding work experiences among child welfare workers. This was prominent among workers with less experience or high proximity to clients. The results imply that confidentiality can interfere with adaptation to work stress, which can affect the health and well‐being of child welfare workers.