The Role of Social Support in Understanding the Relationships of Secondary Traumatic Stress and Compassion Satisfaction on Volunteer Intentions to Quit

Volunteers who work with survivors of trauma are an understudied population who risk experiencing a complex set of negative emotional consequences called secondary trauma. Understanding how to prevent, or at least reduce, the potential negative effects of exposure to traumatized victims on volunteers is critical for protecting volunteer well-being and retaining these volunteers for the benefit of those they serve. Secondary traumatic stress is characterized by symptoms similar to post-traumatic stress disorder, including intrusive thoughts, avoidance of reminders of trauma, hyperarousal, and negative alterations in mood and cognitions. Utilizing a Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) framework, this study examined the mediating role of secondary traumatic stress to the relationship between secondary trauma exposure and intentions to quit among Court-Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteers. Further, it explored two resources for volunteers regularly exposed to secondary trauma: organizational social support and compassion satisfaction. The results supported the direct relationships of secondary trauma exposure to experienced secondary traumatic stress and secondary traumatic stress to intentions to quit, but not the proposed mediated model. Furthermore, despite theoretical presumptions, neither resource ameliorated the detrimental effects of secondary trauma exposure for the volunteers. This study was the first to extend the investigation of secondary traumatic stress to the volunteer domain and one of few to examine its effects on organizational outcomes. Promising avenues for future secondary traumatic stress research will be discussed