Self-Care and Vicarious Resilience in Victim Advocates: A National Study

Studies show that self-care practices can mitigate the negative effects of trauma associated with victim service work. Despite this, many victim advocates do not participate in regular self-care activities. Data from the national study Victim Services and Vicarious Resilience, which comprised 915 survey participants, 24 qualitative interviews, and 19 focus group participants, were analyzed to investigate the connection between happiness and two variables: self-care, measured via the Time Spent in Coping Strategies Scale (TSCSS) and vicarious resilience. Significant positive correlations were found between participant responses to the statement "I am happy" and participants' mean scores on the Vicarious Resilience Scale and the TSCSS. Qualitative findings point to the barriers that victim advocates face in trying to practice self-care; these are often related to the burden of self-care being placed on the individuals with heavy workloads, without appropriate workplace scaffolding for effective self-care practice. These findings demonstrate the importance of organizations taking an active role in promoting and facilitating self-care activities, which includes building in self-care work into the paid workweek.