Annotated Bibliography

In the world of child advocacy, one of the major issues within this field is the pushing of the
topic in the major scene but also the secondary trauma that comes with being in the helping
field that advocacy is also the fact that it is children makes it harder for some. I chose this
specific one because it is one that I know of majorly due to living through it and knowing
that hearing stories of children being neglected can be really hard and take a toll on one
after a while. I hope to learn further more about the effect and the number of those who
leave for this exact reason. But I am also hopeful to sorta see the similarities of child
advocacy lawyering in comparison to social work. I haven't quite looked to see if there are
enough sources on this topic but there should be because this is a major part of why people
leave this field.

Staudt, M., & Williams-Hayes, M. (2020). Secondary traumatic stress, Burnout, and
Compassion Satisfaction Among Child Advocacy Interdisciplinary Team Members. Advances
in Social Work, from
https://journals.iupui.edu/index.php/advancesinsocialwork/article/view/22957

This citation is from a study that was conducted at the university of Tennessee. It was conducted
by Mona Williams-Hayes and Marlys Staudt. Mona Williams-Hayes is a licensed clinical social
worker (LCSW) where she practices in Tennessee. Staudt she also has her degree and is licensed
from Tennessee, when she did this research. Their research included deep research into the
secondary traumatic stress scale (STSS), the professional quality of life scale (ProQOL), and the
social readjustment rating scale (SRSS or the life stress test). This study was conducted through
the use of four counties in Tennessee’s child advocacy centers (CAC), law enforcement,
department of child services (DCS), juvenile court personals. This study was able to come to the
conclusion that up to 50% of its participants may be experiencing PTSD symptoms. Their study
also concluded that the use of evidence-based practices had lower levels of burnout and higher
levels of compassion satisfaction.

Cummings, C., Singer, J., & Benito, L. T. (n.d.). Compassion satisfaction to combat
work-related burnout, vicarious ... from
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0886260518799502

Caroline Cummings is an assistant professor for Texas Tech university and has her PhD in
psychology from the University of Nevada. Lorraine T Benuto she also has her PhD from the
University of Nevada. Jonathan B. Singer is an associate professor at Loyola University of
Chicago. He has his PhD from the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work. Ryan Hisaka
also has his degree from the University of Nevada. The following study is to examine the
validity between the STS subscale on the ProQoL scale and the secondary traumatic stress scale
(this is the gold standard in the field). They also looked into the relationship between compassion
satisfaction and burnout, and examined which predictor (burnout and victim of a trauma)
accounted for the most variation in victim advocates experiencing secondary traumatic stress and
vicarious trauma. Lastly they also looked into whether compassion satisfaction influenced the
relationships between burnout and secondary traumatic stress and vicarious trauma. This study
was done to agencies unto which a victim advocate was located at and this was 75 agencies.
There were 132 participants for the study. It was shown that burnout, VT, and STS appeared to
be co-occurring. There was also a strong relationship between burnout and CS. CS also then
influenced the relationship between burnout and VT, as well as burnout and STS; this then
caused an increase in CS. CS may decrease the experience of STS and VT through burnout.

Benuto, L. T., Singer, J., Gonzalez, F., Newlands, R., & Hooft, S. (2019, April 13).
Supporting those who provide support: Work-related resources and secondary traumatic stress
among victim advocates. Safety and Health at Work. Retrieved from
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2093791118302130

The following study was conducted at the University of Nevada at Reno in their psychology
department. This study was conducted differently in the way that in their questionnaire they also
included questions that asked what the agency they worked for did to help support the
employees. Just like the others the majority of participants were caucasian and were women. It
was seen that there was no real difference between a workplace that prived support versus a
workplace that did provide support. Training was a part of the top workplace support offered by
77%. The main goal of the study was to examine the extent to which workplace supports act as
protective factors against the development of STS. It was correlated that the number of direct
hours worked was related to higher STS scores.

Benuto, L, Singer, J, Cummings, C, Ahrendt, A. The Vicarious Trauma Scale:

Confirmatory factor analysis and psychometric properties with a sample of victim
advocates. Health Soc Care Community. 2018; 26: 564– 571.
https://doi.org/10.1111/hsc.12554

Everyone in this study is from the University of Nevada at Reno. The vicarious trauma scale was
used and the main thing that was looked upon for determination. This scale is to assess
subjective distress levels that are associated with working with traumatized clients. The vicarious
trauma scale was determined to be pretty high in its reliability in determining vicarious trauma.
This study has come to the conclusion that there is not a relationship between vicarious trauma
and the amount of exposure to traumatic material. The researchers developed that those who
already had trauma chose to be a victim advocate to mask over their own trauma which then
makes it to where they don’t develop vicarious trauma.

Letson, M. M., Davis, C., Sherfield, J., Beer, O. W. J., Phillips, R., & Wolf, K. G. (2019,
November 8). Identifying compassion satisfaction, Burnout, & traumatic stress in children's
Advocacy Centers. Child Abuse & Neglect. Retrieved April 4, 2023, from
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014521341930417X

The following study was done at Ohio State at their college of medicine and their college of
social work. It was also partially done at the Nationwide Children's hospital in Columbus, Ohio.
Through the study it was able to be brought together that those of professionals that provide
on-call services tend to have a significantly higher burnout rate. There is new evidence that
mentions that support or time off after long time periods would be helpful/beneficial. There is
also mention that there isn't much to go off on how to create a child advocacy center work
environment that reduces and prevents compassion fatigue and burnout. The study was approved
by the Nationwide Children's Hospital in Ohio.

Ellis, C., & Knight, K. E. (2021.). Advancing a Model of Secondary Trauma: Consequences
for Victim Service Providers. from
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0886260518775161

This study was done at Montana State University. It is mentioned on how most times when it
comes to work we forget about self and how detrimental that becomes. The multidisciplinary
team is mentioned and the high turnover rates and the low job satisfaction. This damage to one's
perception of self is then defined as secondary trauma. There is also plenty of statistical evidence
that those who with high trauma caseload exposures then have higher rates of secondary trauma.
Everything within this study was approved by Montana State University’s Institutional Review
Board. There was a conclusion of most people who do what they do in advocacy have been
through it. This was then tied to their deep self connection on why they are helping. There is also
mention of having to desensitization of one.

Molnar, B. E., Meeker, S. A., Manners, K., Tieszen, L., Kalergis, K., Fine, J. E., Hallinan,
S., Wolfe, J. D., & Wells, M. K. (2020). Vicarious traumatization among child welfare and
child protection professionals: A systematic review. Child Abuse & Neglect. from
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0145213420303343

This study was done at multiple agencies/places. The Institute for Health Equity and Social
Justice Research at North Eastern University, Resilience Works, Mani Partners Strategic
Communications, and National CHildrens Advocacy Center. “When there is a negative reaction
to this witnessing of other peoples trauma, vicarious traumatization is the result”.

Gershun, M., & Terrebonne, C. (2018, September 14). Child welfare system interventions
on behalf of children and families: Highlighting the role of court appointed special
advocates. from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1538544218300725

Both Gershum and Terrebonne have worked for the Jackson County Missouri CASA (Court
Appointed Special Advocates). This is with Gershun being the former executie director. Whereas
Terrebonne is the director of legal services for the same organization. There is a huge shortage of
some children not having the ability to have a court appointed special advocates volunteer to
advocate for their best interests. The child welfare workforce turnover rates are estimated to be
between 23% and 60% annually.

Marin, M., & Bender, W. (2021, Nov 03). Exposing negligence in city child welfare system:
Staff burnout, turnover at root of settlements. Philadelphia Daily News Retrieved from
https://login.proxy006.nclive.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/exposin
g-negligence-city-child-welfare-system/docview/2592169392/se-2

This article is from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Due to the high amount of turnover there are
some cases that are not communicated upon that then leads to issues. Said issues were such of
the girls getting returned to their abusive father until it was further seen that this shouldn't have
happened. This then led to them realizing that this only happened because of the removal/leaving
of the social worker/case manager.
Krebs, C. (2017). Tips for Young Lawyers: How to Avoid Burnout as a Children's Lawyer.
Americanbar.org., from
https://www.americanbar.org/groups/litigation/committees/childrens-rights/articles/2017/ti
ps-young-lawyers-how-to-avoid-burnout-as-childrens-lawyer/

Cathy Krebs is a children's rights litigation committee member for the American Bar Association
in Washington, D.C. There are some good points on how when it comes to the juvenile court
system things might not go in the best interest of the child and can add to the frustration and
strain of the work type. There is mention of how important thinking about how burnout can
affect your practice. But how this will make it hard to not get the very much want of getting the
best and whatever we can for our clients.