This study set out to investigate the patterns of client violence experienced by social workers at community welfare centers and its degree, examine the impacts of client violence experiences on their burnout, test the moderating effects of profession...
This study set out to investigate the patterns of client violence experienced by social workers at community welfare centers and its degree, examine the impacts of client violence experiences on their burnout, test the moderating effects of professional identity in the relations between client violence experiences and burnout, and provide basic useful data for searching for effective preventive and responsive measures to guarantee safety from client violence.
For those purposes, the study surveyed 173 social workers working for community welfare centers across the nation. It examined physical violence, emotional violence, property damage, and other damage for client violence and emotional exhaustion, decline of accomplishment, and depersonalization for clients for burnout. It analyzed and discussed the moderating effects of professional identity between client violence experienced by social workers and their burnout at community welfare centers. Those research efforts led to the following conclusions:
First, client violence was significant in gender and characteristics of workplace of the general characteristics of the subjects. The social workers who were male and worked in the area of permanent rental apartments tended to experience more client violence. Second, the subjects' overall burnout was in the intermediate level. Of the subfactors of burnout, emotional exhaustion recorded the highest points. The social workers who were female and had a low educational background tended to experience more client violence. Third, the subjects' overall professional identity was high. The social workers who were male, focused on administrative and managerial works, and had a high educational background tended to have greater professional identity. Fourth, the more client violence experiences the social workers had, the more burnout they experienced. In particular, emotional exhaustion and depersonalization for clients made a significant increase. Fifth, professional identity was in a negative(-) correlation with the three subfactors of burnout that were emotional exhaustion, decline of accomplishment and depersonalization for clients. That is, the greater their professional identity was, the less burnout they experienced. Sixth, professional identity had moderating effects between client violence experiences and burnout.
The significance of the study lies in that it examined the current state of client violence, which was in the early stage in the field of social welfare, and surveyed social workers at community welfare centers who were considered to be relatively safe from client violence and thus received no research interest. It is also significant that the study investigated social workers' burnout in relation to the impacts of client violence and its impacts on professional identity and searched for measures to prevent and react to client violence. Based on the research findings, the study made suggestions for practical intervention of social welfare to prevent and react to client violence. The suggestions to reinforce professional identity, which turned out to have moderating effects between client violence experiences and burnout in the study, are as follows:
First, official professional agencies within the social welfare organizations should be established systematically and have their authority recognized in and outside social welfare. Second, the general principles and regulations should be reinforced on the association level to help social workers increase their faith in self-regulation. Third, there should be efforts on the field to secure discretion, which is the authority for social workers to make final decisions over their works for themselves. And finally, social workers should be provided opportunities of re-education such as participation in education, training, research, presentation and seminar for ongoing obtainment of skills in order to provide more efficient and professional service to clients. In addition to the measures to reinforce professional identity mentioned above, the following suggestions were also made to prevent and react to client violence: it is critical to provide education and supervision for social workers at community welfare centers to prevent client violence and take effective measures in a violent situation. Furthermore, there should be countermeasures against client violence happening on the field on the agency level in order to create a safer working environment. Especially the follow-up measures should be reinforced for the social workers who have experienced client violence on the agency level.