Secondary Traumatic Stress in Nurses: The Role of Problem and Emotion-Focused Coping Styles

Secondary traumatic stress is one of the problems in nurses and the role of coping styles is paramount importance. The purpose of current study was to investigate the severity of secondary traumatic stress in nurses and the role of coping styles on it. In this descriptive study, 323 nurses working in Kermanshah hospitals were selected via stratified sampling in 2012. The participants filled out Secondary Traumatic Stress Scale (STSS) and Coping Styles Inventory, and the data was analyzed by Pearson correlation and regression. The results showed that 16.7% of nurses had the severity of secondary traumatic stress symptoms. Problem-focused coping negatively (r=-0.47) and emotion focused coping positively (r=0.405) were correlated to secondary traumatic stress symptoms (p<0.05). The coping styles explained 0.31 of total variance of secondary traumatic stress symptoms in nurses. Based on the results, the severity of secondary traumatic stress symptoms and their relationship with coping styles are verified.