What Resilience Skills Do Emergency Workers Need During a Widespread Phase of a Socio-Health Emergency? A Focus on the Role of Hardiness and Resilience

Emergency volunteers who intervene during disasters and emergency situations are subjected to risk to their psychological well-being. Experiencing highly stressful experiences can lead to developing secondary trauma and burnout. It is, therefore, important to know what protective factors can be stre...

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Main Authors: Valeria Giostra, Tiziana Maiorano, Monia Vagni
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2024-12-01
Series:Social Sciences
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/14/1/8
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author Valeria Giostra
Tiziana Maiorano
Monia Vagni
author_facet Valeria Giostra
Tiziana Maiorano
Monia Vagni
author_sort Valeria Giostra
collection DOAJ
description Emergency volunteers who intervene during disasters and emergency situations are subjected to risk to their psychological well-being. Experiencing highly stressful experiences can lead to developing secondary trauma and burnout. It is, therefore, important to know what protective factors can be strengthened in volunteers to protect their mental and social well-being. This study has the main objective of analyzing how the possible protective factors hardiness and resilience intervene in the relationship with emergency stress, secondary trauma, and burnout in a sample of 476 Italian Red Cross volunteers using an online transactional survey during the second phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Pearson’s correlation, several hierarchical linear regression models, and moderation analysis were conducted. The results showed a strong positive association between emergency stress, secondary trauma, and burnout, and their negative correlation with resilience skills. Furthermore, emergency stress and the avoidance of secondary trauma led to an increase in emotional exhaustion and depersonalization of emergency volunteers. During the emergency phases, hardiness played a greater protective role in burnout than resilience skills. Hardiness was found to be a good moderator of both emergency stress and avoidance and intrusion of secondary trauma. Connor–Davidson resilience showed a significant moderating effect between the components of secondary trauma and burnout. These results suggest the importance of implementing training in hardiness and resilience for emergency volunteers to reduce the risk of stress, secondary trauma, and burnout during a health emergency and improve their social well-being.
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spelling doaj-art-f415d053862c46ce93c2a4c6a2e01ef92025-01-24T13:49:39ZengMDPI AGSocial Sciences2076-07602024-12-01141810.3390/socsci14010008What Resilience Skills Do Emergency Workers Need During a Widespread Phase of a Socio-Health Emergency? A Focus on the Role of Hardiness and ResilienceValeria Giostra0Tiziana Maiorano1Monia Vagni2Department of Humanities, University of Urbino, 61029 Urbino, ItalyDepartment of Humanities, University of Urbino, 61029 Urbino, ItalyDepartment of Philosophy, Social Sciences, Humanities and Education, University of Perugia, 06123 Perugia, ItalyEmergency volunteers who intervene during disasters and emergency situations are subjected to risk to their psychological well-being. Experiencing highly stressful experiences can lead to developing secondary trauma and burnout. It is, therefore, important to know what protective factors can be strengthened in volunteers to protect their mental and social well-being. This study has the main objective of analyzing how the possible protective factors hardiness and resilience intervene in the relationship with emergency stress, secondary trauma, and burnout in a sample of 476 Italian Red Cross volunteers using an online transactional survey during the second phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Pearson’s correlation, several hierarchical linear regression models, and moderation analysis were conducted. The results showed a strong positive association between emergency stress, secondary trauma, and burnout, and their negative correlation with resilience skills. Furthermore, emergency stress and the avoidance of secondary trauma led to an increase in emotional exhaustion and depersonalization of emergency volunteers. During the emergency phases, hardiness played a greater protective role in burnout than resilience skills. Hardiness was found to be a good moderator of both emergency stress and avoidance and intrusion of secondary trauma. Connor–Davidson resilience showed a significant moderating effect between the components of secondary trauma and burnout. These results suggest the importance of implementing training in hardiness and resilience for emergency volunteers to reduce the risk of stress, secondary trauma, and burnout during a health emergency and improve their social well-being.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/14/1/8COVID-19emergency workersstressburnoutsecondary traumaresilience
spellingShingle Valeria Giostra
Tiziana Maiorano
Monia Vagni
What Resilience Skills Do Emergency Workers Need During a Widespread Phase of a Socio-Health Emergency? A Focus on the Role of Hardiness and Resilience
Social Sciences
COVID-19
emergency workers
stress
burnout
secondary trauma
resilience
title What Resilience Skills Do Emergency Workers Need During a Widespread Phase of a Socio-Health Emergency? A Focus on the Role of Hardiness and Resilience
title_full What Resilience Skills Do Emergency Workers Need During a Widespread Phase of a Socio-Health Emergency? A Focus on the Role of Hardiness and Resilience
title_fullStr What Resilience Skills Do Emergency Workers Need During a Widespread Phase of a Socio-Health Emergency? A Focus on the Role of Hardiness and Resilience
title_full_unstemmed What Resilience Skills Do Emergency Workers Need During a Widespread Phase of a Socio-Health Emergency? A Focus on the Role of Hardiness and Resilience
title_short What Resilience Skills Do Emergency Workers Need During a Widespread Phase of a Socio-Health Emergency? A Focus on the Role of Hardiness and Resilience
title_sort what resilience skills do emergency workers need during a widespread phase of a socio health emergency a focus on the role of hardiness and resilience
topic COVID-19
emergency workers
stress
burnout
secondary trauma
resilience
url https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/14/1/8
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