Coping with Secondary Traumatic Stress.

Exposure to the traumatic experiences of others can lead to , a condition comprising trauma-related symptoms. There is a lack of evidence on efficient ways to mitigate STS among professionals working with refugees, who are secondarily exposed to traumatic content. This study examines the latent structure of coping mechanisms and explores the predictive power of coping strategies for STS in a sample of professionals working with refugees. A total of 288 participants (age: = 34.01, = 10.03; 57.3% female) working with refugees completed the COPE Inventory and Secondary Traumatic Stress Scale. Factor analysis of the COPE Inventory showed that coping mechanisms are grouped around four interrelated factors-Problem-focused, Socially supported emotion-focused, Avoidant, and Passive coping-which accounted for 46.7% of the variance. The regression model showed that Avoidant coping positively predicts and , and Passive coping was positively associated with and . Problem-focused coping was related to lower and , while Socially supported emotion-focused coping was not associated with any of the STS symptoms. In total, coping factors accounted for 10.8%, 6.3%, and 4.3% of the variance of , , and , respectively. The study provides a foundation for programs to mitigate STS among professionals working with refugees.