Wyznaczniki negatywnych i pozytywnych skutków wtórnej ekspozycji na traumę u funkcjonariuszy Policji

Abstract

Police officers, except where they are at risk of repercussions directly experienced trauma may also experience the stress of giving help people who have experienced such situa-tions. Such exposure to the trauma of others can lead to negative and positive effects on the helper in the form of e.g. secondary traumatic stress and secondary posttraumatic growth. The aim of the undertaken research was to establish the determinants of negative and positive effects of secondary exposure to trauma among Polish policemen. The research con-sidered environmental and organizational variables (treated as indicators of secondary expo-sure to trauma), which include workload indicators, i.e. police division, seniority, work expe-rience with people after traumatic events, workload, and received social support. The second group of variables consisted of subjective factors – sex, age of the respondents own history of trauma, personality dimensions (neuroticism, extroversion, opennes to experience, conscien-tiousness and agreebleness), intrusive and reflective ruminations, and sense of self-efficacy in coping with secondary trauma. The research was of longitudinal character. 790 police officers took part in the first stage, of whom 682 admitted that they had contact with the victims of events as part of their service of a traumatic nature. The results were included in further analyses. From this group of policemen, 106 officers took part in the second stage, the results of which have also been included. In the research 6 measurement tools were used such as: Secondary Traumatic Stress Inventory – IWST, Secondary Posttraumatic Growth Inwentory – IWWP, Social Support Scale - SWS, NEO Five-Factor Inventory, Event Related Rumination Inventory (ERRI), Secondary Trauma Self-Efficacy (STSE) Scale. The examined group of policemen was characterized by a low level of secondary traumatic stress and secondary post-traumatic growth. Secondary traumatic stress level over time (at least 6 months from the first measurement) lowered. Differences in the intensity of secondary posttraumatic growth were not confirmed depending on the measurement time. Among the contributing factors the occurrence of the analyzed consequences of exposure to secondary trauma are primarily intrusive and reflective ruminations. They were the main pre-dictors of secondary traumatic stress and secondary post-traumatic growth as well as media-tors in the relationship between workload indices and secondary traumatic stress and second-ary posttraumatic growth. In addition to rumination, some personality traits, including neurot-icism was conducive to the occurence of secondary traumatic stress. On the other hand, extra-version was positively associated with secondary posttraumatic growth. The received social support also contributed to secondary stress and growth. Relationships between secondary traumatic stress and secondary posttraumatic growth have also been found. Keywords: trauma, secondary traumatic stress, secondary posttraumatic growth, ru-minations, police officers