ABSTRACT

Occupational stress is commonly experienced by professional caregivers working in Residential Youth Care (RYC), due to the psychological demands of their work. Although the influence of stress has been studied on this helping profession, there is still no measurement tool to assess the potential sources of stress for these professionals. This study aimed to validate the Stress Questionnaire for Residential Youth Care Professionals (Stress-RYCaregivers), a self-report questionnaire assessing different sources of occupational stress experienced by RYC professionals. Dimensionality and psychometric properties were investigated using a sample of 360 professional caregivers (88.6% female) working in 41 residential care facilities. A confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the 25 items grouped into six factors (i.e., Caring of Children and Young People, Work overload, Career progression and salary, Relationships at work, Training activities, and Home-work interface). All subscales showed adequate internal consistency and test–retest reliability. Construct validity in relation to external variables was also found. Significant differences in stress sources were found concerning personal and work variables. Understanding the causes of stress is the first step to prevent it, which may impact in the caregivers’ quality of life, in the care provided, and, ultimately, in the quality of life of children in RYC.

摘要

由于工作的心理需求，在青年住宿护理 (RYC) 工作的专业护理人员通常会遇到职业压力。尽管已经研究了压力对这个帮助职业的影响，但仍然没有衡量工具来评估这些专业人员的潜在压力来源。本研究旨在验证住宿青年护理专业人员 (Stress-RYCaregivers) 的压力问卷，这是一份评估 RYC 专业人员所经历的不同职业压力来源的自我报告问卷。使用在 41 个住宅护理机构工作的 360 名专业护理人员（88.6% 为女性）作为样本，调查了维度和心理测量属性。验证性因素分析表明，这 25 个项目分为六个因素（即，照顾儿童和青少年、超负荷工作、职业发展和薪水、工作关系、培训活动和家庭工作界面）。所有分量表都显示出足够的内部一致性和重测信度。还发现了与外部变量相关的结构有效性。在个人和工作变量方面发现了压力源的显着差异。了解压力的原因是预防压力的第一步，这可能会影响看护者的生活质量、所提供的护理，并最终影响 RYC 儿童的生活质量。还发现了与外部变量相关的结构有效性。在个人和工作变量方面发现了压力源的显着差异。了解压力的原因是预防压力的第一步，这可能会影响看护者的生活质量、所提供的护理，并最终影响 RYC 儿童的生活质量。还发现了与外部变量相关的结构有效性。在个人和工作变量方面发现了压力源的显着差异。了解压力的原因是预防压力的第一步，这可能会影响看护者的生活质量、所提供的护理，并最终影响 RYC 儿童的生活质量。