The DOI matches its Crossref record; 66 of the 66 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Resilience and Burnout in Child Protection Social Work: Individual and Organisational Themes from a Systematic Literature Review
Open accessAbstract
Child protection social work is acknowledged as a very stressful occupation, with high turnover and poor retention of staff being a major concern. This paper highlights themes that emerged from findings of sixty-five articles that were included as part of a systematic literature review. The review focused on the evaluation of research findings, which considered individual and organisational factors associated with resilience or burnout in child protection social work staff. The results identified a range of individual and organisational themes for staff in child protection social work. Nine themes were identified in total. These are categorised under ‘Individual’ and ‘Organisational’ themes. Themes categorised as individual included personal history of maltreatment, training and preparation for child welfare, coping, secondary traumatic stress, compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction. Those classified as organisational included workload, social support and supervision, organisational culture and climate, organisational and professional commitment, and job satisfaction or dissatisfaction. The range of factors is discussed with recommendations and areas for future research are highlighted.
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“Social work professionals experience high levels of stress and burnout.”
From Examining Potential Psychological Protective and Risk Factors for Stress and Burnout in Social Workers. (2025) · cites this paper as McFadden et al., 2015
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“First, research into the origins of stress in social work confirms that they are, largely, organisational in nature (McFadden et al., 2015).”
From Critical Mindfulness in Social Work: Exploring the Potential of Reflexive Self-Care in the Journey from Student to Social Worker (2022) · cites this paper as McFadden et al., 2015
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Cites
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Bonanno, G. A., Galea, S., Bucciarelli, A., & Vlahov, D. (2007) · Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-006x.75.5.671 · Cited by 1,461
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“Extending the search to this type of grey literature reduces the potential for publication bias (Burdett et al, 2003) although it is recognised that this is less of an issue for social work than for some other areas of study (Egger et al, 2003, Taylor, Dempster and Donnelly, 2007).”
BackgroundBarak, M. E. M., Nissly, J. A., & Levin, A. (2001) · Social Service Review · doi:10.1086/323166 · Cited by 1,006
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Compassion fatigue as secondary traumatic stress disorder: An overview.
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Bride, B. E., Radey, M., & Figley, C. R. (2007) · Clinical Social Work Journal · doi:10.1007/s10615-007-0091-7 · Cited by 544
Compassion fatigue, burnout, and compassion satisfaction among Colorado child protection workers
Conrad, D., & Kellar-Guenther, Y. (2006) · Child Abuse & Neglect · doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2006.03.009 · Cited by 517
Why do they leave? Modeling child welfare workers' turnover intentions
Barak, M. E. M., Levin, A., Nissly, J. A., & Lane, C. J. (2005) · Children and Youth Services Review · doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2005.06.003 · Cited by 346
Research works printed but not linked: 9
- Aclaro-Lapidario M. L. (2007) ‘Coping strategies of children's social workers in the Department of Children and Family Services (California)’, Masters Abstracts International, 46 (02), pp. 0730.
- Caringi J. C. (2008) ‘Secondary traumatic stress in New York State child welfare workers’, Dissertation Abstracts International, A: The Humanities and Social Sciences, 68 (10), pp. 565–574
- Munro E. (2011) Munro Review of Child Protection: A Child Centred System, May 2011 , Department for Education, London.
- Robichaud C. M. (2004) ‘The relationship of spirituality and coping to burnout in child welfare workers’, Dissertation Abstracts International, A: The Humanities and Social Sciences, 65 (3), p. 1122-A.
- Shepel L. M. (2009) ‘Potential triple jeopardy: A descriptive cross-sectional study of the impact of vicarious traumatisation and secondary traumatic stress on Aboriginal child welfare social workers’, Dissertation Abstracts International, A: The Humanities and Social Sciences, 69 (11), pp. 4508.
- Song K. (2006) ‘Prevalence of client violence toward child and family social workers and its effects on burnout, organizational commitment, and turnover intention: A structural equation modelling approach’, Dissertation Abstracts International, A: The Humanities and Social Sciences, 66 (9), p. 3465-A.
- Turcotte D. Pouliot E. (2006) ‘Job satisfaction of social workers in child protection’, Canadian Social Work, 8 (1), pp. 32–41
- Vu P. H. (2007) ‘Perceived coping strategies of children's social workers in dealing with vicarious trauma’, Masters Abstracts International, 45 (05), pp. 2280.
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Journal of Counselor Preparation and Supervision
Renfro-Michel, E., & Burlew, L. D. (2026) · Journal of Counselor Preparation and Supervision · doi:10.7729/00.5277 · Cited by 199
Stress, coping, and psychological resilience among physicians
O’Dowd, E., O'Connor, P. E., Lydon, S., Mongan, O., Connolly, F., Diskin, C., McLoughlin, A., Rabbitt, L., McVicker, L., Reid-McDermott, B., et al. (2018) · BMC Health Services Research · doi:10.1186/s12913-018-3541-8 · Cited by 214
Geisler, M., Berthelsen, H., & Muhonen, T. (2019) · Human Services Organizations Management Leadership & Governance · doi:10.1080/23303131.2019.1569574 · Cited by 212
Fighting racism, battling burnout: causes of activist burnout in US racial justice activists
Gorski, P. C. (2018) · Ethnic and Racial Studies · doi:10.1080/01419870.2018.1439981 · Cited by 145
PTSD Symptoms, Vicarious Traumatization, and Burnout in Front Line Workers in the Homeless Sector
Schiff, J. W., & Lane, A. (2019) · Community Mental Health Journal · doi:10.1007/s10597-018-00364-7 · Cited by 128
Metadata
- Authors
- McFadden, P., Campbell, A., & Taylor, B.
- Affiliations
- University of Ulster (GB)
- Queen's University Belfast (GB)
- Corresponding author
- McFadden, Paula
- Venue
- British Journal of Social Work
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2014-02-26
- Volume
- 45
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 1546-1563
- ISSN
- 0045-3102 (ISSN-L)
- 1468-263X
- OpenAlex
- W2138865191
- Cited by
- 499
- References
- 66
- Citations by year
- 2026: 44 · 2025: 69 · 2024: 67 · 2023: 53 · 2022: 39 · 2021: 35 · 2020: 45 · 2019: 60 · 2018: 44 · 2017: 24 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 8
- FWCI
- 14.47
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- The British Journal of Social Work (publishedVersion)
- Research Portal (Queen's University Belfast) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Public Administration › Social Work Education and Practice
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Stress and Burnout Research
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Child Welfare and Adoption
- Keywords
- child protection social work, resilience, burnout, occupational stress, employee turnover, employee retention, secondary traumatic stress, compassion fatigue, compassion satisfaction, coping, workload, social support, supervision, organizational culture, job satisfaction, professional commitment
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