Experiences of social workers in child and youth welfare : - A Study of Critical Incidents

Abstract Working with child and youth welfare is one of the most difficult challenges a social worker might face in the field of social work. Those who work with child and youth welfare are more exposed to stress and burnout than other comparable human service occupations. Research links the prevalence of stress and burnout to several key variables, such as demographics, working conditions and personality factors. In contrast, even though social workers in this field face many negative work-related problems they report a high job satisfaction. The aim of this study is to examine how uplifting and straining experiences affect social workers, who work with child and youth welfare, through the use of The Critical Incident Technique and interviews. There were many factors that contributed to the social workers experiences of stress, but many ultimately reported a high satisfaction and engagement towards their work. Success with clients and positive client feedback generated engagement, even to the extent that it gave the social workers a sense of affirmation to their career choice. This means that the social workers sense of engagement is closely tied to their clients. They provide a large and important source of engagement, albeit an unstable one. Since positive client results and client feedback cannot be guaranteed nor manipulated, it is not a stable or usable source of engagement. It is therefore imperative to not rely on clients for engagement, but instead search for other alternative that might generate engagement in social workers