Due 7/13/18 7 p.m EST1 page not including min 3 referencesArticle and checklist attached(ARTICLE)Powell, M. B., Guadagno, B. L., & Cassematis, P. (2013). Workplace stressors for investigative intervie
Workplace stressors for
investigative interviewers
of child-abuse victims
Martine B. Powell and Belinda L. Guadagno
School of Psychology, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia, and
Peter Cassematis
Key Centre for Ethics, Law, Justice and Governance,
Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this study is to identify the nature and prevalence of workplace stressors
faced by interviewers of child sexual assault victims.
Design/methodology/approach – Totally, 68 professionals (police and child protection workers)
were invited to anonymously post their perceptions of workplace stressors on an internet forum as
part of an investigative interviewing online training course. Specifically, participants were asked to
reflect on salient sources of stress encountered in their role of interviewing sexually abused children.
Findings – Three key stressors were identified across the study’s professional groups: inadequate
recognition of specialised skills; high-workload demands; and interagency tensions. Consistent with
previous research, exposure to child-abuse reports was not raised as a stressor.
Research limitations/implications – The study generated suggestions for modifying management
practices; however, future research should identify and trial strategies for improving workplace
climate in child-abuse investigation.
Practical implications – As the stressors isolated by participants related to workplace climate
rather than exposure to victims’ accounts of child abuse, minimising negative consequences of work
stressors requires changes to workplace culture and practice. Workplace climates need to be modified
so that the demands are offset by resources.
Originality/value – Because of its online, anonymous nature, this was the first study to offer
participants the opportunity to honestly disclose primary sources of stress in child-abuse investigation.
The research also makes a much-needed contribution to an area of police practice that is vital yet often
overlooked.
Keywords Investigative interviewing, Job demands, Work stress, Child-abuse investigation,
Workplace, Police
Paper type Research paper
It is well established that those who work in the area of child maltreatment can develop
mental disorders such as depression and anxiety (Bennett et al., 2005; Russet al., 2009;
Sabin-Farrell and Turpin, 2003). Such disorders can have debilitating consequences for
individual wellbeing and can also severely undermine job productivity. Mental illness,
for example, is associated with high staff turnover, frequent absenteeism and reduced
job performance (Bennett et al., 2005; Russ et al., 2009; Strand and Dore, 2009). If
psychological disturbance is shown to be long-lasting and associated with exposure to
crimes against children, and it is concluded that reasonable precaution was not taken in
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1363-951X.htm
Received 9 May 2012
Revised 8 November 2012
21 January 2013
Accepted 22 January 2013
Policing: An International Journal of
Police Strategies & Management
Vol. 36 No. 3, 2013
pp. 512-525
r Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1363-951X
DOI 10.1108/PIJPSM-05-2012-0039
The research was funded in part by an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant (LP0990449).
The authors acknowledge the support of the professionals who volunteered to participate in this
project. The authors also thank Rebecca Wright and Rebecca Steinberg for their assistance in the
preparation of this manuscript.
512 PIJPSM
36,3 the workplace to reduce the injuries, then the organisation may be required to provide
financial compensation to the individual. One such compensation case involved a
female Australian police officer named Beth Seedsman.Seedsman, a specialised child-abuse investigator, was required to respond to initial
complaints of alleged physical and sexual abuse and criminal neglect involving
children or other vulnerable persons. Her responsibilities included victim support
and liaison (which inevitably resulted in exposure to victims’ stories) and her
symptoms included hyper vigilance, constant apprehension, nightmares, insomnia,
tearfulness and anxiety which escalated after the birth of her own son. She was
awarded $750,000 as compensation for mental injury defined as post-traumatic stress
disorder ( New South Wales v. Seedsman , 2000). Post-traumatic stress disorder refers
to the development of a specific cluster of anxiety-related psychological disturbances
(according to the DSM-IV there are three groups of symptoms; hyperarousal,
re-experiencing the trauma, emotional/numbing although confirmatory factor analyses
has identified a fourth “dysphoria” factor) following exposure to an extreme stressor
(Elklit and Shevlin, 2007). Worker compensation was awarded to Officer Seedsman
because the court concluded that the stressor which caused Seedsman’s injury was
intensive prolonged exposure to crimes committed against children and that the police
service in which Seedsman worked had not provided a safe system of work that would
protect her and other employees from the foreseeable risk. The process of limiting harm to employees who work in the area of child maltreatment,
however, is a complex and under-researched issue. It requires, in the first instance, a good
understanding of the whole range of conditions under which employee distress manifests.
While overcoming mental injury may not necessarily require a thorough understanding
of its aetiology, prevention models depend on modifying the precise aspects of the
organisational environment, policies and procedures that directly compromise employee
safety (Goddard and Hunt, 2011; Russ et al., 2009). So far, the dominant explanation for the
development of stress symptoms among those who work in the area of child
maltreatment is that of vicarious traumatisation. Vicarious traumatisation refers to the
cumulative transformative effect in the self of a worker that result from engagement with
traumatised clients and their reports of traumatic experiences (Sabin-Farrell and Turpin,
2003). The traumatisation manifests itself in increasingly negative ways of interpreting
and experiencing the world, often accompanied by debilitating psychological symptoms
(Lerias and Byrne, 2003; Sabin-Farrell and Turpin, 2003). Vicarious traumatisation is generally considered to be a phenomenon specific to caring
professions such as social workers, psychologists and specialist trauma counsellors (Sabin-
Farrell and Turpin, 2003). A broad range of occupational groups, however, perform roles
that require exposure to traumatised client groups. Police who work with maltreated
children may also be vulnerable to experiencing vicarious traumatisation. For example,
Seedsman’s contracting of post-traumatic stress disorder subsequent to working with
maltreated children is consistent with a process of vicarious traumatisation (Sabin-Farrell
and Turpin, 2003). It begs the question; how many other WorkCover claims with diagnoses
of post-traumatic stress disorder will arise within the context of child-abuse investigation? It needs to be noted, however, that intense contact with maltreated children is not the
only potential stressor that child maltreatment workers are exposed to. Such workers face
a wide range of more direct role-specific and general organisational stressors, all of which
could potentially contribute to mental breakdown. For example, Stanley and Goddard
(2002, cited in Goddard and Hunt, 2011) reported that child protection workers often face
direct trauma such as verbal abuse, threats of harm and physical assaults. Direct assaults
513
Interviewers
of child-abuse victims on child protection workers have been found to be associated with increased levels of
psychological dysfunction while greater exposure to traumatised children has not
(Cornille and Meyers, 1999). Child protection workers have also highlighted workplace
issues such as high workload, non-supportive co-workers and supervisors, and feeling
undervalued as employees as being important sources of distress (Goddard and Hunt,
2011). Qualitative research with police tells a similar tale; where organisational stressors
have been reported by child-abuse investigators to be even more distressing and harmful
than operational stressors (Hart and Cotton, 2002; Maguenet al., 2009; McCreary and
Thompson, 2006; Shane, 2010). For example, Wright et al.(2006), who conducted in-depth
interviews with a diverse sample of 25 police officers working in child-abuse units, found
that heavy caseload and disputes in the context of professional collaboration were key
sources of negative work stress whereas the content of the casework was not reported to
be a concern at all. Further, it needs to be acknowledged that not all child maltreatment workers who
are exposed to a wide range of stressors develop psychological dysfunction. Powell and
Tomyn (2011) revealed that, among a group of 214 police officers working in the area of
child abuse investigation, a measure of life satisfaction (known to be related to clinical
depression) was well within the expected adult normative range. Correlations between
measures of wellbeing and exposure to traumatised clients have been small and not
always negative (Sabin-Farrell and Turpin, 2003) and between 50 and 70 per cent of
research participants have been free of any psychopathology (Russ et al., 2009).
Collectively, the prior work suggests that: vicarious trauma may not be a common
phenomenon within the population that works with maltreated children; and employee
distress (when it arises) could potentially be due to exposure to casework as well as the
broader workplace environment. The development of workplace strategies for limiting
harm, therefore, must be grounded within a broad organisational climate framework;
a framework that considers levels of role stress, leadership facilitation and support,
and work-group cooperation as factors that influence work attitudes, job performance,
response to stressors and employee wellbeing (Arnetz et al., 2011; Carret al., 2003;
D’Amato and Zijlstra, 2008; Hart and Cotton, 2002; Parker et al., 2003).
Research is still in its infancy and work is still needed to establish the nature of the
stressors facing professionals in the child maltreatment arena. The current research
extends prior work by allowing child maltreatment professionals another opportunity to
present their perspectives on what causes them distress in their work with abused
children, whether these stressors be empathic or located within the broad organisational
climate. Although this study is exploratory and subjective in nature, it is important to
stay grounded in the qualitative framework unconstrained by predetermined analytical
categories and meanings ascribed to workplace stress (Minichiello et al.,1995).Thetwo
unique aspects of this investigation are its inclusion of a heterogeneous sample (including
police, social workers and psychologists in the one study) and the elicitation of
participants perceptions in a completely anonymous (i.e. online) environment as opposed
to face-to-face in the workplace. We expect that, consistent with research by Ho and
McLeod (2008) the anonymity afforded by completely anonymous online communication
would maximise the likelihood of participants revealing personal vulnerability.
Method
Participants
The participants included 68 professionals (15 males, 53 females) specialising in the
area of child-abuse investigation from all seven states of Australia. In all, 41 of the
514 PIJPSM
36,3 professionals were police officers working within specialised child-abuse units and 27
of the professionals were child protection workers (social workers or psychologists).
The qualifications, background experience and length of service varied among
participants. The estimated number of child-abuse interviews previously conducted by
the participants ranged from 6 to 300 (M¼127.96, SD ¼110.30), formal qualifications
ranged from high school diploma to doctoral degree, and length of employment in the
child-abuse area ranged from 1 to 29 years ( M¼11.66, SD ¼7.39).
Recruitment and online discussion procedure
All of the participants were in the process of completing an online forensic interview
training programme entitled “Advanced Prac tice in Forensic Interviewing of Children”,
run through the first two authors’ university. Participants enrolled in the online training
course in cohorts of between 10 and 20, and completed the course in the year of enrolment.
The data were collected over a six-year period, from 2006 to 2011. Participants were told
that their decision to engage in the research component was completely voluntary and
would not impact their relationship with the trainers. All participants consented and no
participant who provided consent was excluded. Overall, the online training course
involved 12 modules (delivered over 24 weeks) requiring a time commitment of
approximately three hours per week. Modules 1 to 11 focused solely on open-ended
questioning and techniques to improve interview practice. This included the ability to
describe what constitutes “best practice” guidelines in interviewing children, the capacity
to recognise interviews that adhere to such guidelines, the ability to define and label
appropriate questions and provide reasons for their effectiveness, and the ability to
demonstrate the use of open-ended questions in mock interviews. From the beginning of the training course, the anonymous and voluntary discussion
forum was made available to all participants electronically via the university’s online
student “blackboard”. In the first ten modules the discussion focused on providing
feedback about the exercises participants were required to complete. The modules did
not address broader workplace issues. The anonymous discussion forum about
organisational stressors was introduced in Module 11, the second-last module of the
course. Importantly, by the time Module 11 was commenced, participants had already
become familiar with the blackboard system and were openly and anonymously
conversing with each other about the challenges they faced in relation to completing
the learning exercises. In the online discussion task related to workplace stressors (the focus of this study)
participants were instructed to reflect on the last few months at work and to think
about the stressors that may have impacted their performance and/or led to feelings of
work stress. The participants were encouraged to generate a variety of stressors and to
“post” or upload comments about each. As a guide, the following questions were to be
reflected on when writing about each stressor: why is (the stressor) a source of stress
for you? Precisely how does (the stressor) affect you? What practical strategies can
your organisation implement to overcome (the stressor)? Participants were aware
that their comments were anonymous and could not be linked back to them unless
participants provided identifying information within their text. When uploading their
text on the system, participants were asked to state their occupation-type so that
comments could be considered within the nature of the work conducted (policing
or child protection). Participants were also encouraged to read preceding online
comments prior to offering their own remarks so that the forum could be interactive.
This was intended to encourage communication and compliance with the task by
515
Interviewers
of child-abuse victims normalising the process of critical self-reflection and providing a framework for
responding (i.e. comparisons could be drawn between their own and others’ experiences).
Data analysis
All responses were archived and printed for analysis. Although participants’ responses
were anonymous, the online system allowed us to determine whether the feedback was an
initial or subsequent posting of the same person. The data set consisted of 68 initial
comments as well as 43 additional responses made by individuals (usually in response to
a comment made by another individual). The length of the initial comments were, on
average, 748 words (range 102-1,257 words), which is roughly equivalent to one A4 page
of single-spaced text. The 43 responses to colleagues’ comments were much briefer
( M ¼103 words, range ¼19-207) and were predominantly an expression of sympathy and
understanding of another’s situation. At the co mpletion of the research, all of the comments
were downloaded from the online system and copied into a word document for analysis.
Thematic analysis, which involves the proces s of locating common patterns within a data
set (Gifford, 1998), was used to systematically analyse the participants’ comments.
The process of extrapolating key themes within the data set began with the second
author independently reading each comment several times, followed by the concurrent
reading of the entire data set in order to get a sense of the overall range of organisational
stressors identified. Elaborate notes were made about the stressors identified, and a
collaborative discussion was held with the first author (who had also read the comments)
to communicate and debate the emerging themes. A coding manual was developed by
authors and all of the participants’ comments were subsequently re-read and coded and a
table of organisational stressors was developed. The table also included a list of specific
concerns relating to each organisational stressor (including the impact on interview
performance) and a list of suggested strategies for overcoming each stressor. It should be
noted that participant responses did not differ on the basis of demography. Therefore all
the reported results refer to the sample as a whole.
Results
All of the professionals acknowledged the existence of workplace stressors which were
significant enough to undermine work satisfaction and performance; however, the
nature of the case material was not a salient concern in these comments. Three key
stressors were identified by the participants and these were reported across both
professional groups. The stressors included: inadequate recognition of specialised
skills, high-workload demands and interagency tensions. Each of these stressors will
now be described, along with the suggestions offered by participants for addressing
them. Quotes are provided to illustrate the professionals’ opinions.
Inadequate recognition of specialised skills
The first stressor identified by participants was inadequate recognition or
acknowledgement within the workplace of the complex, specialist skills required to
conduct best practice interviews with children about abuse. More specifically, some
participants perceived that their management’s lack of support undermined the
development and maintenance of good interview technique as well as job satisfaction
and mental wellbeing:
I will never forget a comment made to me by a senior police detective. He said to me, “there is
no mystery to child abuse investigations. They are like any other investigation. The only
thing that is extra is the interview with the child, and that is not hard.” I didn’t bother
516 PIJPSM
36,3 challenging this comment [y] It would have fallen on deaf ears. As long as attitudes
such as these continue to be held by senior police, the skill development of junior
police in dealing with sexual and physical offences against children will be jeopardised
(Police Officer).
The importance of, and skill level required to, interview children is frequently
minimised and undervalued within the oth er day-to-day challenges of protective
services work. I feel appreciated because I know my new manager understands I have
specialist skill. This enhances my confidence and work satisfaction which in turn has
made me a better interviewer. [y ] Most of my colleagues are not so lucky (Child Protection
Worker).
Some of the participants drew a direct link between job satisfaction, performance and
recognition of the specialised nature of their work, commenting that organisational
policies needed to better promote awareness of the specialist skills required in child-
abuse work. Several police officers called for a change to “rotational” policies that
restricted them from being employed within child-abuse units for more than three
years, complaining that the maximum tenure policy was leading to a shortage of
skilled staff and mentors. Child protection workers, in contrast, commented on the lack
of incentive to up-skill or improve their performance in the area:
Where I work, the police officers can only stay for a maximum of 3 years due to our tenure
policy. Regardless of the fact that we have compulsory 3 month psychological tests, they
still won’t let us stay. How are we meant to become specialised and experts at talking to
children after just 3 years? I love what I do, but they won’t let me keep doing it. And if
the best interviewers are moved on, who ar e going to be the role models? The policy
of maximum tenure needs to change if we are ever going to acquire and maintain best
practice (Police Officer).
When people don’t believe what you do is challenging then there are no checks and balances
and so things deteriorate over time. Lack of specialised training, lack of resources and lack of
skilled workers leave many workers feeling overwhelmed about the process that needs to be
followed. So why are these checks and balances not in place? Part of the problem is likely to
be individual apathy, but there is no external incentive to lift your game because the
organisation doesn’t really think it’s a difficult task. People feel unsupported by the system
and are often disheartened (Child Protection Worker).
Increasing senior management’s recognition of the specialised skills needed in child-
abuse investigations was advocated by many of the professionals as one way to
overcome the perceived impediment that under-recognition of the specialty of their
work presents. Not surprisingly, given the focus of the online training course was on
interviewing, comments concentrated on the lack of support in relation to this skill.
Participants suggested that management could support improved interview
performance by allocating more time for workers to engage in practice opportunities
and providing greater access to expert evaluation and feedback. Participants
associated the unavailability of professional development opportunities (training and
feedback) with the lack of recognition of their skills:
I think management could show their support for our work by allocating resources
to getting in experts in the area who can spend time with us looking over an interview
transcript or two and giving us feedback about our strengths and areas for further
development. I thought this was the most beneficial part of this course [online course] –
nothing compares to having the opportunity to review and critique your work with an expert
(Police Officer).
517
Interviewers
of child-abuse victims High-workload demands
The second organisational stressor was high caseload. All participants commented on
the “relentless” nature of their work and the perceived need to “take on more and more”
diverse and competing tasks:
Child Protection has historically struggled to maintain sufficient staffing levels and this is due to
a variety of reasons, not least of which is due to the stress caused by the extraordinary workload
and the impact this has on interview preparedness and quality (Child Protection Worker).
It is about “complete that file and while doing that move on to the next pile sitting there”.
There is either no time or procedure to evaluate the file just completed and reflect and learn
how and if the interview could have been done better (Police Officer).
Complaints about high workload were usually accompanied by complaints about the
inadequate recognition for what participants do:
Prior to moving into this area, I had no idea of the large amount of work that was passing
through these units. Over time, I have noticed how the constant intake of work continually
leads to stress within the office. The stress is not only associated with this type of work, but
the stress from management who continually expect you to keep performing with less staff
and more incoming work. Management are blind to the amount of work undertaken in this
area because relatively few matters are prosecuted for a variety of reasons. It is very
disheartening working in this field, seeing how few of the many jobs we do actually get to
Court (Police Officer).
Simply trying to manage the cases on a daily basis had a wide range of implications for
the professionals and their mental wellbeing and job performance. High caseload
undermined the ability to adequately prepare for cases, monitor performance and
complete investigations thoroughly. Some professionals reported feeling a sense of guilt
and anxiety about their ability to represent each child client in the best manner possible:
These matters require time and attention to compile the best possible brief for presentation to
court and you always feel that you have not had sufficient time to do this. This leaves you
feeling a sense of guilt and anxiety as you always want to put forward the best case possible
for the victim. In matters of child abuse, the responsibility felt by investigators for outcomes
is huge (Police Officer).
The worry of failure and letting down the child stresses me (Child Protection Worker).
We always get the message that we are not doing enough and in that culture it is very easy to
start to question yourself and your competence, “Am I not doing enough?”, “Am I working too
slowly?”, “Am I not up to scratch?”, “How good an interviewer am I really?” [y] If my seniors
had a better understanding of the busy and oftentimes mishmash nature of this work and if
they offered greater space in my workload for training and professional development
activities I would feel more confident, more competent, and this would drive my motivation
and efficiency. Second-guessing your interviewing skill wastes time and impacts productivity.
It’s a crazy cycle (Child Protection Worker).
Two distinct suggestions were offered by the professionals to reduce the stress caused
by heavy caseloads. First, the professionals called for improved communication from
the courts and other divisions within their organisation about the progress of cases and
the professionals’ contribution to case outcomes. The professionals perceived that
better feedback about cases would facilitate discussions with child clients and their
families, and would offer professionals closure (allowing mental and emotional
attention to be directed towards other cases). The professionals also called for greater
518 PIJPSM
36,3 recognition among senior management of workers’ heavy caseloads and the array of other
work expectations placed upon them. It was suggested that management could more
explicitly articulate workload expectations and should ensure that adequate time is
allocated in workers’ loads for case preparation and professional development activities.
Interagency tensions
The third organisational stressor isolated by participants in the study related to the
difficulty of working in partnership with other agencies. In particular, the tension
between police and child protection agencies in the context of conducting joint
investigations was prominent. Overall, the source of interagency tension and negative
emotional reactions associated with conducting joint investigations appeared to be
process conflict (i.e. conflict over how to perform the task, logistical issues of
procedure, timeframes, roles and planning) and inadequate information and debriefing
opportunities to equip professionals to deal with and interpret conflicts adequately.
For example, a number of professionals in the study reported feeling frustrated when
decisions were made without consultation and when delays were caused because of the
other organisation’s procedural requirements. There was clear tension related to
differences between professionals experience, skills and attitudes:
Childprotectionisalsoinvolvedinjointinvestigations with police (in the case of physical and
sexual abuse of children) and this often results i n some tensions. It can befrustratingforchild
protection staff when police inquiries take considerable time before any charges are laid
(sometimes many months), and once charges are laid it can be a year before the matter is brought
to Court. These long delays make it difficult for ch ild protection to protect children in the family
when police do not want us to talk to alleged offe nders before they complete their interviews
especially when we need to take immediate action to p rotect the children (ChildProtectionWorker).
I think that there is confusion between the agencies as to the techniques utilised, skills
possessed and nature of information being sought. This does lead to some disharmony in
terms of police wanting to be the lead interviewers in every field situation we encounter,
because generally members do not trust the experience, skills and attitudes of members from
outside of their organisation (Police Officer).
Importantly, several professionals who had participated in joint-agency training
programmes felt that the training helped to alleviate interagency tensions which, in
turn, improved practice:
I have heard others in the area talk about the negative impact that workers from different
agencies can have on your confidence and interview skill. I was trained with police members
in a group interagency training course and I must say that I haven’t experienced any
problems working collaboratively with police since then. We are all trained the same way
and so when we work together we can assist one another because we’re both on the same
page [ y] We give each other feedback and we build each other’s confidence [y ] I think my
interviewing is all the better because of it (Child Protection Worker).
Although interagency tensions existed for many of the professionals in the sample, all
had a positive attitude to working collaboratively and were open to discussing the
tensions faced. Some participants suggested that joint training might help to foster
more effective working relationships, while others called for regular online discussion,
focus groups or other forums through which interagency communication about the
tensions and concerns arising from collaboration could be achieved:
It appears there is a general lack of understanding about the role of police and child protection
in investigating child abuse and that more joint training and collaboration between these
519
Interviewers
of child-abuse victims agencies at grass root level would be beneficial. Participating in this research meant that I got
to read the comments of people from other professions and this has helped me to understand
their experiences for the first time. Online forums or newsletters may be one way to open
communication between us and give us an opportunity to learn what each other does and the
climate that we each work within (Child Protection Worker).
A final suggestion for reducing the impact of workplace stressors was increasing
opportunities for formal debriefing. This theme was raised by just under half of the
professionals in the sample. While informal debriefing was commonplace among
colleagues, and none of the professionals reported experiencing major psychological or
other illness as a result of their work, the potential for psychological harm was
acknowledged. Debriefing was not merely needed to deal with reactions to case
content. Some participants referred to debriefing as an educative process whereby
participants could be helped to identify strategies for enhancing interagency
collaboration and time management (i.e. enhancing skills such as prioritisation,
planning and handling interruptions). Debriefing was perceived as a requirement of
any specialised job that involved casework (not merely child protection work) and
inadequate support in this regard was seen as part of the general lack of recognition for
the high demands, high workload and stressful conditions that staff worked under:
I think the importance of staff being able to be debriefed is misunderstood by management.
Within our work location, peer debriefing is conducted nearly every day whether it is peers
sharing humour or merely discussing each notification, it is a form of talking and sharing how one
is feeling. We rely on peer support but sometimes that doesn’t cut it. The stress affects personal life
and I know it affects work life – even though few would be willing to admit it (Police Officer).
Within my role I have spoken to numerous children disclosing sexual experiences well beyond
their years to scrolling through computers with child pornography to gather evidence to just the
other day delivering a death message to a child, and like most other members within the same
unitsasmineIhaveneverbeendebriefed.Wenee d to start seriously considering our wellbeing
so that we can best approach the way we conduct interviews (Police Officer).
Discussion
This study has highlighted that child-abuse investigation work is associated with
numerous stressors including high workload, tensions related to working in
partnership with other agencies and inadequate recognition of (and opportunity to
develop) specialised skills required to perform the job adequately. Indeed, these
workplace climate factors were more noticeable stressors than exposure to child-abuse
experiences and reports. The stress associated with case content was not a theme
raised in response to our questions. Could omission of case content as a perceived stressor merely be compliance
(among the professionals) with a preconception that they should be able to deal with
the content? It is well established that employees will refrain from displaying true
feelings if these run counter to prevailing norms (Glomb and Tews, 2004). We suspect
that the answer is “no”, for five reasons. First, there is no anecdotal support for such
normative expectations on the online forum discussion, and second, the nature
and content of the responses were remarkably similar to previous studies which
have sought qualitative feedback in quite different participant samples and contexts
(Maguen et al., 2009; Russ et al., 2009; Sabin-Farrell and Turpin, 2003; Shane, 2010;
Strand and Dore, 2009). Third, the participants demonstrated the ability to vocalise
sensitive and personal matters using the anonymous blackboard system, and were
aware of the potential of trauma content to negatively impact wellbeing. Fourth, the
520 PIJPSM
36,3 findings were consistent across all professional groups, even practising psychologists
who are well accustomed to talking about symptoms and vicarious stress.Finally, the findings fit well within a prominent stress model; the Job Demands-
Resources model. According to this model, employees are exposed to occupation-specific
characteristics (i.e. physical, psychological, social or organisational aspects of the work
environment) characterised as either job resources or job demands. Job resources possess
motivational qualities and thereby contribute to work goal achievement. Examples
include autonomy, availability of feedback, support, opportunities for development,
positive workplace climate and rewards and recognition (Bakker and Demerouti, 2007;
Crawford et al., 2010). Job demands, in contrast, are contextual strains that erode
wellbeing if the physical or psychological energy required to cope exceeds the employees
energy level (Bakker and Demerouti, 2007; Crawford et al., 2010). Examples of job
demands include work overload, physically demanding work environment and
emotionally draining client contact (Bakker and Demerouti, 2007). Job resources offset
the negative impact of job demands and this becomes particularly important when tasks
are especially demanding in terms of workload and emotional challenge (Bakker and
Demerouti, 2007; Bakker et al., 2010). An expanded list of demands, differentiated into
challenge and hindrance stressors, has been included in recent research aimed at refining
the model. Challenge stressors are those which, although energy depleting, also have
motivating potential as overcoming the challenge provides benefits such as need
satisfaction, goal achievement and personal growth. Employees perceive challenge
stressors as those which can be managed and stimulate problem-focused coping
(e.g. workload, deadlines and job responsibility; Crawford et al., 2010; Van den Broeck
et al. , 2010). Hindrance stressors are energy depleting without compensatory
motivational potential. These prevent the attainment of growth needs, satisfaction and
goal achievement, and tend to be countered with emotion-focused coping (e.g. role
conflict, role overload, organisational politics, administrative hassles, emotional conflict
and inadequate resources; Crawford et al., 2010; Van den Broeck et al.,2010).
The stressors revealed by the participants in this study, and the frustration and
dissatisfaction engendered by these, suggest that the participants are routinely faced with
demands-rich – resource-scare workplaces (Bakker and Demerouti, 2007). For example,
comments related to inadequate specialisation indicate a lack of resources such as
support, recognition, positive workplace climate and opportunities for development.
Interagency tensions indicate the presence of hindrance demands such as emotional
and role conflict, administrative hassles and the absence of resources such as positive
workplace climate and opportunities for development and support. High workload
(accompanied by absence of resources such as adequate recovery time, positive workplace
climate, recognition from management and professional development opportunities) was
seen as a source of energy depletion and frustration without any motivational potential. Within the model, it is possible that child sex abuse case content was not mentioned as
a source of distress because (while energy depleting) it was perceived to be a challenge
stressor; satisfaction is obtained from the ide a of protecting children which in turn confers
resilience to the employee (Burns et al., 2008; Conrad and Kellar-Guenther, 2006; Russ et al.,
2009). Workplace stressors, in contrast are sources of distress because they impose
demands without contributing any compensatory energy (Crawford et al., 2010; Shane,
2010; Van den Broeck et al., 2010). For example, success increases investigator self-efficacy,
and self-efficacy focuses attention on the po sitive aspects of the job such as the personal
satisfaction derived from protecting children (Burns et al., 2008). However, participants
often did not know the fate of children and so have no obvious signs of success. In the
521
Interviewers
of child-abuse victims absence of obvious success the participants feel less competent and are deprived of
a source of work satisfaction which, in turn, reduces workers’ perception of the workplace
climate and their reliance on organisational support. Similarly, heavy caseload, inadequate
training opportunities and interagency conflicts interfere with attaining satisfaction that
would otherwise be met through child-abuse investigation work. With regards to how organisations should respond to these stressors, several
suggestions were offered by the participants. These included: formalised structures and
processes to facilitate interagency collaborati on; better recognition and feedback regarding
professionals’ performance and its impact on case outcome; and increasing opportunities
for professional development, formal debrie fing and case preparation. These suggestions
are consistent with prior evaluations (Powel l and Wright, 2009, 2012) and fit well within
the Jobs Demands-Resources Model. Essenti ally, the suggestions are requests for more
resources. For example, inadequate specialisation could be addressed through recognition
of participant skills by management and op portunities for professional development
through training and access to feedback. Interagency tensions could be reduced through
providing debriefing and joint training sessions which would provide forums for
professional development, addressing sour ces of emotional conflict and increasing
interagency support. If the resource defici ency was addressed, it may be possible for high
workload to be changed from an energy-depleting demand to a challenge demand.
Management recognition of the high workload could accrue resources such as providing
adequate time for recovery, ca se preparation and professional development activities.
Better communication from courts and inside or ganisations would provide the resource of
feedback. Access to feedback would also provide closure, allowing employees to conserve
and redirect their energy to incomplete cases thereby sustaining a higher average level of
performance (Bakker and Demerouti, 2007; Whittaker et al.,2007).
Addressing the stressors identified by participants is possible but will require
numerous changes, including a major cultural shift in attitudes towards professionals.
When writing about each of the stressors and their needs and challenges, participants
were complaining about limitations in the amount of professional self-efficacy and their
value within the organisations. A strong orientation towards prioritisation of child-
abuse investigation (i.e. the need for better recognition or appreciation by management)
was reflected in the way the professionals perceived their role within the organisation,
the quality of their work and their relationship with other service providers. This issue
is probably heightened in the area of child abuse because few cases go to court and
when they do, professionals are often unaware of the case outcomes. A shift in culture is likely to have a flow on effect to the perception of the workplace
psychological climate held by individual investigators (Patterson et al., 2005). For example,
employee recognition influen ces perceived quality of the workplace climate, perceived
organisational support and the quality of th e leader-member exchange, all of which are
positively associated with performance and e mployee wellbeing (Brown and Leigh, 1996;
Carr et al., 2003; Erdogan and Enders, 2007; Rhoades and Eisenberger, 2002; Stajkovic
and Luthans, 2003; Wayne et al., 2002; Yukl et al., 2009). Another example is the issue of
excessive workload. This has been shown to increase the likelihood of experiencing
symptoms of physical and psychological pr oblems across occupational groups (Nixon
et al. , 2011; Schultz et al., 2010). However, excessive workload is only reported to be
stressful when the organisational climate is poor (Cotton and Hart, 2003). There are several directions for future research. First, we need to identify and trial
strategies for addressing workplace stress in order to prevent occupational injury and
increase professional satisfaction. Second, w e need to develop techniques for identifying
522 PIJPSM
36,3 those few individual officers who are experiencing (or who may be at risk of developing)
psychological problems. None of our parti cipants showed evidence of significant
psychological harm associated with their job which is consistent with other work showing
that (as a group) child-abuse investigators do not display a lower level of life satisfaction
(which is indicative of burnout) compared to the mainstream population (Powell and
Tomyn, 2011). However, this does not mean police or other occupational groups exposed to
traumatised children cannot suffer some form of empathic harm. For example, Burns et al.
(2008) who interviewed a group of professionals w ho specialised in the investigation of child
internet exploitation revealed the existence of symptoms consistent with secondary
traumatisation. It needs to be ascertained the degree to which the different prevalence in
reporting trauma symptoms between the current study and that of Burns et al.is due to the
different nature of the work (child internet exploitation work vs general child-abuse work) or
the different task requirement (describing incidents that challenged coping mechanisms vs
describing the challenges of child-abuse work i n general). Child internet exploitation work is
unique in that it is highly focused on viewing graphic images and audiovisual recordings of
young children being sexually assaulted and to rtured. A substantial aspect of the work is
on the investigation, identification and locat ionofvictimsandsuspects.Thejobcanalso
involve covert work (i.e. pretending to be a victim online in order to entrap offenders). Thus,
there is also scope to build on this study by adding a quantitative element and comparing
between groups who specialise in different populations of traumatised clients. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that child-abuse investigators attribute distress
to features of the perceived workplace clima te rather than exposure to detailed accounts
of child abuse provided by victims. The three focal stressors identified were excessive
caseload, tensions arising from interagency collaboration and management’s failure to
recognise that these are highly skilled speciali sts. Thus, controlling the negative influence of
work stress on investigative interviewers requires (at least in the first instance) modification
of the work environment rather than attempts to limit exposure to case material through
maximum tenure and forced job rotation which undermine opportunities for specialisation.
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About the authors
Martine B. Powell (PhD, MClinPsych) is a Professor with a broad research profile in the area of
child witness testimony, particularly investigative interviewing and the trial process. Martine B.
Powell is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: [email protected] Belinda L. Guadagno (DPsych Forensic) is a Lecturer with particular interest in the
development of investigative interviewer training strategies. Peter Cassematis (PhD) is an Organisational Psychologist and Research Fellow with expertise
in the identification and management of health impacts arising from the investigation of child
internet exploitation.
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of child-abuse victims R epro duce d w ith p erm is sio n o f th e c o pyrig ht o w ner. F urth er r e pro ductio n p ro hib ite d w ith out
p erm is sio n.
