The use of coping strategies to social workers Burden, stress, problematic or crisis situations are concepts that are somehow exceptional in a person's life and place special demands on him. Oravcová (2004, p. 274) states that "a burdensome situation is characterized by a disproportion between the requirements, demands of the given situation and the capacity possibilities, abilities, and skills of a person necessary to manage it." Stressful situations occur in the work environment as well as in private life. Each individual copes with the load individually according to his abilities and possibilities. Repeated or similar stressful situations are mostly solved in a learned way, which has proven itself for the individual and brings him back to balance. Currently, there is a growing trend to determine (identify) appropriate strategies (methods) for managing the load. Coping strategies as prevention of workload are increasingly becoming a current topic.
In general, coping is defined as "a set of cognitive and behavioral efforts aimed at managing, reducing or tolerating internal and external demands that threaten or exceed the individual's resources" (Lazarus, Folkman In: Bratská, 2004, p. 1). Under the term coping Venglářová et al. (2011) understands coping with acting stressors, i.e. deployment of all forces to handle the over-limit load. Laca et al. (2011, p. 102) describes coping as "the process of managing external and internal factors that are evaluated by a person under stress as threatening his resources. According to Mikuš (2012), coping is a process by which an individual tries to cope with stressful situations. It is the art of dealing with an unusually difficult, almost unmanageable situation and thus preventing burnout syndrome. Coping with stressful situations is different for each person Several authors divide them into three main forms of load management:
- problem-focused coping (behavior aimed at reducing or eliminating the threat)
- coping focused on emotions (trying to change one's own experience of a stressful situation)
- coping focused on escape (change of environment, conditions or people in the surroundings (Gáborová, Kollárik In: Šiňanská et al., 2013).
Coping strategies are an important stabilizing factor in solving problem situations. Helping professionals, such as social workers, during the performance of their work almost daily encounter situations that are complicated for them, causing them a feeling of anger, helplessness, anxiety or fear (Šiňanská et al., 2013, p.41). Oláh et al. (2009) state that the social worker is confronted with difficult human destinies every day, often has a significant impact on the lives of clients, and enters into the most intimate interpersonal relationships. These are often acute conditions that are unpredictable and one cannot prepare for them. At other times, the social worker is in the position of administrator and considerable financial sums pass through his hands. The special function of a social worker results from his special position in relation to the client and the environment itself, when part of his professional performance are his skills and willingness to participate in solving people's problems (Raková, Bednarek, 2015, p. 47). Stressful situations can accompany the social worker in his work with the client, family and community. they affect the perception and experience of workers, which is reflected in their behavior and has a significant impact on the performance of their work. The profession requires the deployment of a complex personality possessing both theoretical knowledge as well as character traits and practical experience. Thus, the personality dispositions of a modern social worker should include qualities such as flexibility, dynamism, initiative, perseverance and social feeling. Prompt reaction and selection of appropriate procedures are a necessity when solving clients' crisis situations. The choice of coping strategy is significantly influenced by the specific situation and especially the personality of the individual. The goal of our research was to find out what coping strategies social workers use in practice.
The selection of respondents was deliberate. The sample of respondents consisted of 78 social workers working at the Labor, Social Affairs and Family Offices in the Košice region. In the selection of respondents, we included all social workers who were interested in participating in the research without limiting the selection of respondents according to gender, age, education and length of practice. Participation in the research was anonymous.
As a method of data collection, we used the Brief COPE questionnaire - a questionnaire of coping strategies. The Brief COPE questionnaire is a revised and shortened version of the original COPE questionnaire (Carver, 1997 according to Macdonald, 2011). It contains 28 items, divided into 14 subscales, where each subscale contains two items. Subscales - coping strategies: self-distraction, active coping, denial, substance abuse, emotional support, instrumental support, engaged behavior, venting, positive reformulation, planning, humor, acceptance, religion, self-blame. These 14 subscales are further divided into two groups – problem-focused coping, emotion-focused coping, and escapist coping. We recommend strategies focused on the problem - active coping, planning, instrumental support, strategies focused on emotions include emotional support, positive reformulation, denial, acceptance, religion and humor. Escape strategies include venting, self-distraction, disengaged behavior, substance use, and self-blame. Problem- and emotion-focused coping represent adaptive strategies, and escape-focused coping represents a maladaptive strategy. Respondents indicate on a four-point scale whether they behave in stressful situations in the indicated manner (yes -0, rather yes-1, rather no -2, no -3) during the past 6 months. In the second part of the questionnaire, we investigated the demographic characteristics of the respondents. The questionnaire was voluntary and anonymous. The research was carried out in 2014. The data were processed in the SPSS 15 program. We carried out a descriptive description of the data obtained from the set of respondents.
Results
In total, the monitored group consisted of 78 social workers. The majority of the group, 95% (n=74), was female, men made up 5% (n=4) of the group. The average age of the respondents was 40.9 ± SD 9.110 years. The age range of the group was from 21 years to 59 years. The average length of practice was 10.1 ± SD 7.545 years. The minimum length of experience for the respondents was 1 year and the maximum was 35 years.
Education in the field of social work currently takes place at all levels. In the set we monitored, the respondents indicated the highest level of education they had achieved. The most frequent answer of 51% (n=40) was the achievement of the second degree of higher education without specifying the field. 22% (n=17) of those interviewed stated that they had completed a third-level university education, 13% (n=10) had completed a first-level university education, and 14% (n=11) had completed a full secondary education. Based on the results of the calculation of frequencies, averages and standard deviation, we present an overview of the use of coping strategies by social workers (Table 1).
Discussion
As such, coping represents a process in which an individual tries to cope with the burden. Each individual has their own way of managing the burden, and our goal was to identify what strategies social workers as representatives of the helping profession use in their work. To achieve our goal, we used the Brief COPE questionnaire, which offered respondents a choice of several coping strategies. Individual strategies were focused on the problem, emotions and escape.
Problem-oriented coping focuses on changing or managing a stressful situation, and its main task is to limit the adverse effects of a stressful situation or distinguish resources for overcoming it (Bally, Šiňanská, 2014). Active coping means the implementation of active interventions with the intention of eliminating or at least reducing stress. Active coping was effective regardless of the type of work stressors (Shimazu, Kosugi, 2003) in terms of reducing psychological distress. Active coping is used by 59% of social workers in the group we monitored. Planning as a coping strategy is the social worker's thinking about what steps they can take to deal with stress and burden as effectively as possible. The planning strategy is preferred by 86% of the respondents in our group, which we evaluate very positively, as well as the fact that no respondent stated the expression "I do not plan". Li, Lambert (2008) state that nurses who belong to helping professions most often use the coping strategy of planning. Sarmány-Shuller (2000) generally states that basal coping strategies, such as instrumental support, tend to be activated first when encountering a stressor. Nákonečný (1997) draws attention to the importance of the support of the social environment, who states that "a purely rational solution to a stressful situation as a problem situation is always one-sided, because the subject is always more or less emotionally engaged and his emotional state becomes part of the problem". The preference for the instrumental support coping strategy is not dominant in our group. The answers of the respondents whether they use this strategy were evenly distributed in both positive and negative terms.
Coping oriented towards emotional experience is characterized by the individual's effort to control the feelings arising under the influence of stress and the regulation of the emotional response to the effectiveness of the load (Gajdošová, 2009). The first task of effective coping should be to reduce the intensity of negative emotions that could prevent the use of active coping strategies (Baumgartner et al., 2010). Emotional support as a coping strategy was mentioned by 66% of respondents in our group. The preference for emotional support is also recommended by the research results of Burker, Paton (2006). Individuals who have an optimistic approach manage stressful situations and problem solving more effectively (Hayes, Bart, 2007). This opinion is confirmed by the use of the coping strategy positive reformulation, which is used by up to 58% of the respondents in our group, which also testifies to the emotional maturity and experience of social workers. Acceptance as a coping strategy was mentioned by 75% of our respondents, which can be evaluated highly positively and highlight the ability of social workers to cope with the demanding work. Striežinec (2007) draws attention to the differences in experience, when external religiosity is related to greater psychological stress and less effective coping with stress, and on the contrary, internalized religiosity represents inner well-being and effective coping with stressful situations. 38% of respondents commented on the active use of this coping strategy.
Escape-oriented coping represents strategies that can also be described as defensive. The use of the venting coping strategy in the group we monitored represents up to 75% of positive responses. Bosson et al. (2006) states, based on the results of the study, that sharing negative emotions has a positive effect on strengthening interpersonal relationships. The author recommends supporting and developing the coping strategy of ventilation as one of the effective means of coping with stress. Individuals with a high perception of stress do not use adaptive coping strategies but rather prefer avoidance strategies (Halama, Bakošová, 2009). Engaged behavior is resp. retreat is chosen by only 15% of social workers, which can be evaluated positively. Our findings are comparable to the findings reported by Shipley, Gow (2006) that 81% of emergency workers do not use coping strategies engaged in behavior. Self-distraction as a maladaptive coping strategy was recorded among firefighters as a helping profession in the first five positions of respondents' choice (Nydeggerov et al., 2011). In our group, 69% of respondents chose this option. The preference for using a coping strategy for the use of addictive substances was not confirmed in the sample we monitored. Our findings are consistent with the results of the research Šiňanská, Šandlová (2013). We were pleased with this fact, because we believe that the frequent use of this strategy could have health consequences for the individuals themselves.
Based on the results of a descriptive analysis of the use of coping strategies by social workers, we can state that the three most frequently used strategies include engaged behavior, humor and denial. We can assign the strategy of acceptance, self-blame and planning to the least used coping strategies in the group we monitored. For comparison, we present the results of the study by Pratie et al. (2009), in which they demonstrated that the most frequently used coping strategies among volunteers were planning, instrumental support and active coping. The strategies of denial and the use of addictive substances were the least used.
Conclusion
Coping strategies mean a specific way of managing the burden. The ability to effectively choose an appropriate coping strategy facilitates adaptation to the coming changes and simplifies the handling of stressful situations that social workers encounter in their personal and professional lives. It is important to recognize whether the use of coping strategies that workers choose leads to a positive and successful management of stress, or whether they only exacerbate the difficulty of the situation and may even lead to burnout. It was positive to find that in the group we monitored, social workers use all methods of coping in difficult situations. When choosing a suitable coping strategy, the specific situation is an important criterion. All coping strategies are effective under certain circumstances and can be varied according to the situation.
Authors: *** doc. PhDr. Lucia Dimunová, PhD., LF UPJŠ in Košice, Institute of Nursing doc. PhDr. Anna Bérešová, PhD., LF UPJŠ in Košice, Institute of Social and Behavioral Medicine *List of bibliographic references
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