Relationships among Resilience, Trauma Scientific Knowledge, Perceived Competence to Treat and Emotional Competence toward Complex Trauma Cases among Mental Health Trainees

Abstract

Most individuals seeking mental health services have experienced trauma. The experience of trauma is complex and mental health trainees are often unprepared for this complexity putting them at risk for burnout and secondary trauma. The American Psychological Association recently approved the Guidelines for Trauma Competence in Education and Training. The current study findings are important for the development of training programs to enhance trauma related competency. This study used a correlational design to explore resilience, trauma scientific knowledge with trauma specific self-efficacy and emotional competence to cope with secondary trauma experiences toward a case scenario of complex trauma. Participants were 162 graduate level, enrolled, counseling and clinical psychology trainees. Resilience, trauma scientific knowledge with trauma specific self-efficacy and emotional competence were measured by the 10 Item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC 10) (Campbell-Sills & Stein, 2007), Trauma Scientific Knowledge scale (TSK) (developed based on APA guidelines, 2015), Task Specific Self-Efficacy Scale (TSSE) (adapted from the TEM; Hoyt et al., 2010), and the Secondary Trauma Self-Efficacy Scale (Cieslak et al., 2013), respectively. Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted controlling for demographic variable age and reports of trauma related training. T-tests were conducted to determine differences in trauma specific self-efficacy and emotional competence based on reports of trauma training. Findings of this study indicate that, when controlling for age and trauma training, resilience and trauma scientific knowledge explain a significant amount of variance in trauma specific self-efficacy and emotional competence, trauma related training makes a difference in trauma specific self-efficacy and emotional competence, and there is a significant relationship among resilience, trauma scientific knowledge, trauma specific self-efficacy and emotional competence.