University of Twente Student Theses
Occurrence and intensity of caller related stressors and their impact on the mental wellbeing of crisis line workers : a correlational study
Wesseler, L. (2020) Occurrence and intensity of caller related stressors and their impact on the mental wellbeing of crisis line workers : a correlational study.
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| Abstract: | Crisis line services have been proven to be effective in helping people in distress. However, crisis line workers are exposed to a variety of stressful situations during their shifts. This can negatively impact their mental well-being. The current study aims to identify the situations experienced as most stressful, possible personal background factors that could be associated with the experienced stressfulness and the effect of these stressful situations on CLWs’ mental well-being. The study was a correlational study including 593 participants. Participants were asked to indicate how frequently and intense they experience caller-related stressors. The Mental Health Continuum Short-Form was applied to measure participants’ mental well-being. The results showed that crisis line workers experience callers having psychiatric problems, being confused, and agitated, and caller planning to commit suicide as most stressful. Having psychiatric problems was thereby also reported most frequently whereby plans to commit suicide were found to be most intensively stressful. Participants showed an overall good mental well-being (M=52), with caller-related stress being slightly associated with the total mental well-being scale (r=-.18**) and all three subscales. Additionally, caller-related stress was found to be weakly but significantly associated with personal background variables [gender (r=.17**), age (r=-.35**), working hours (r=.19**].This study found the situations of callers/chatters suffering from having psychiatric problems, feeling agitated and confused, and planning to commit suicide to be remarkably stressful for crisis line workers. Caller-related stress was weakly but significantly associated with age, gender, and working hours but not with prior education and working years. The mental well-being of participants was good and associated with caller-related stress. Interventions should be specifically tailored to the most stressful situations and topics such as sexual intentions, as women experience this situation to be more stressful than men. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 77 psychology |
| Programme: | Psychology MSc (66604) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/83110 |
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