Trauma and Resiliency in Social Work Degree Candidates

Exposure to traumatic events sufficient to result in symptoms is a common phenomenon within the general public. Extrapolation of this observation to clinical social work students in training is reasonable, though unsubstantiated, at a time when this area of practice is expanding. Untreated trauma symptoms in students have the potential to harm both students and their clients, though little data exits on the prevalence of such events in students or on predicting symptom manifestation. Resiliency is a cluster of behavioral phenomena associated with recovery from trauma in the general population, but this assumption has lacked empirical investigation in degree candidates in the field of social work. Using the Ego-Resiliency Scale, the Trauma Recovery Scale, part of the Traumagram, and the Impact of Events Scale – Revised, exposure to trauma and the predictive value of resiliency for social work students from Florida State University was investigated. Findings show that resiliency and symptoms of posttraumatic stress were inversely related, but this relationship was not statistically significant. These findings provide evidence that resiliency may occur simultaneously with symptoms of trauma. They further suggest that students may be entering a specialty area of practice susceptible to unresolved trauma, risking their own health and potentially impairing optimal client outcomes.