The impact of psychological resilience and gender on the relationship between trauma-coping perception and levels of secondary traumatic stress in mental health workers

This study examined the mediating role of psychological resilience and gender on mental health workers' perceptions of coping with trauma and secondary traumatic stress. Following the February 6 earthquake, the study group consisted of 212 mental health workers who came from various provinces of Turkey to support the earthquake region. We collected data using the “Perception of Coping with Trauma Scale,” “Secondary Traumatic Stress Scale,” “Brief Psychological Resilience Scale,” and “Personal Information Form.” We conducted analyses using PROCESS Macro Model 4 and Model 8. The results show that the perception of coping with trauma indirectly affects secondary traumatic stress through psychological resilience. The relationship between men's perception of coping with trauma and their psychological resilience appears to be greater than that of women. The direct effect of perceptions of coping with trauma on secondary traumatic stress also varies by gender. As men's perceptions of coping with trauma and psychological resilience decrease, the level of secondary traumatic stress increases. We found no significant relationship between these three variables in women. We found that psychological resilience and gender mediate the relationship between perceptions of coping with trauma and secondary traumatic stress. While this relationship was significant for men, it was not significant for women.