Working with Young Offenders: Exploring the experience of Youth Justice Officers and the prevalence of Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS), the use of Coping Strategies and their Quality of Life
The scope of the research will be to explore STS, the use of self-care strategies and the Quality of Life of Youth Justice Officers. The research adopts a mixed methods approach to provide a richness of information and to fully answer the research questions. The overarching aim of the research is to determine the extent, prevalence and severity of STS in Youth Justice Officers and to explore their descriptions of the impact of their experiences of working with Young People who are affected by trauma.
Specifically, the research is intended to answer the following questions:
- What is the prevalence of STS in currently employed Youth Justice Officers, in a preceding 3-month period?
- How severely are Youth Justice Officers affected by STS, in a preceding 3-month period?
- How do Youth Justice Officers affected by STS describe the impact of their experiences of working with traumatised Young People?
- How does the quality of life differ between those that are affected by STS and those that are not?
- What are the different coping strategies used by Youth Justice Officers who are affected by STS, and how frequently are they used?
- How does the prevalence of STS, their quality of life and use of coping strategies differ across the three youth justice settings?
The research will seek to establish whether prior findings on this subject can be related to this particular profession and will represents a unique approach to the topic of STS by focusing on a demographic that has been previously under-represented in research. This research will aim to inform policy and practice, and occupation support for Youth Justice Officers.
