The Relationship of Dissociation Proneness to Secondary Trauma, Burnout, and Compassion Satisfaction in Mobile Crisis Workers

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between general dissociation experiences (DES) and dissociation absorption experiences (DESAB) to secondary traumatic stress (STS), burnout (BO), and compassion satisfaction (CS). Mobile crisis workers in Maine (N = 30) anonymously completed the Dissociative Experiences Scale II and the Professional Quality of Life Scale; biographical data was masked. Results indicated high resiliency in this sample as 80% of scores reflected CS, while 24% of scores reflected STS and 7% reflected BO. Analysis produced moderate, statistically significant correlations between STS and DES (r = .31); STS and DESAB (r = .32); BO and DES (r = .44); and BO and DESAB (r = .43). CS and DES/DESAB did not yield a significant correlation. This suggests a previously unreported relationship between dissociation vulnerability and the experience of STS and BO. Findings warrant further study of STS as a manifestation of a primary trauma disorder and not a distinct category. Results can inform mental health provider training and burnout prevention efforts.

Dissociative features in posttraumatic stress disorder: A latent profile analysis.

“…Wolf and colleagues (2015) found that the dissociative and nondissociative PTSD classes did not differ on the Psychogenic Amnesia subscale, which could be expected because memory impairment is one of the core symptoms of PTSD (APA, 2013) and is likely to be elevated in all PTSD classes. The symptoms on the Loss of Awareness subscale of the DSPS were significantly more endorsed by the dissociative PTSD class than the nondissociative PTSD class in Wolf and colleagues;(2015) study, but this difference was slightly smaller than that on the Depersonalization/Derealization subscale. In our study, the effect sizes for the differences between the PTSD profile and the Dissociative profile were very similar on all DSS subscales, including Gaps in Awareness and Memory.…”

“…Finally, we found that being employed is a significant predictor of the Dissociative profile. This finding is unique in the literature and could perhaps be explained by work-related stress because there is some evidence that burnout at work and dissociative experiences are positively correlated (Plouffe, 2015). However, we did not enquire about participants’ work conditions; therefore, this conclusion is speculative.…”

Secondary Traumatization and Proneness to Dissociation Among Palliative Care Workers: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…6,9 Although the term dissociation has been used to describe a wide variety of processes that should not be viewed as inherently pathological, personal proneness to detachment experienced during the course of a traumatic event, known as peritraumatic dissociation (PETD), 10 is the strongest predictor of posttraumatic stress 11,12 and confers a worse prognosis. 1 The existence of dissociation in the course of treatment for trauma patients has been associated with a broad spectrum of post-traumatic symptoms in different populations and health care settings, such as in the hospital staff after a series of sniper shootings, 13 among emergency room personnel, 14,15 among rescue workers, 10 among midwives who witnessed birth trauma, 16 among ambulance personnel, 17 among mobile crisis workers, 18 and among social workers. 19 A high level of anxiety during exposure to the traumatic experience is a mediator of the association between post-traumatic stress and PETD.…”