Social work has long been known as a stressful profession where burnout and emotional exhaustion among staff are common. Especially duties in child services seem to cause stress and dissatisfaction among social workers. The aim of this thesis is to with a research overview find out how social workers within child protection experience and cope with stress at work. The study is answering the following research question: how do social workers who work with children and families cope with stress at work? The method for the current study is a research overview with a thematic analysis. The purpose of this method is to compile research regarding coping strategies within child and family services. To understand the empirical data a psychosocial perspective with focus on Karasek’s (1979) demand-control-support model and coping is applied. The result of the study shows that social workers working in child protection use stress management strategies that are based on social support and personal characteristics as well as with the help of the organization's efforts as support. To feel that you have meaningful social connections seems to be the most recurring factor for stress management in child protection. Both formal and informal social support are of great importance for how social workers cope with the psychologically stressful work, sometimes regardless of individual self-help strategies or organizational efforts.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:hig-36786 |
| Date | January 2021 |
| Creators | Lindqvist, Alva |
| Publisher | Högskolan i Gävle, Avdelningen för socialt arbete och kriminologi |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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