No strangers to adversity: Resilience-promoting practices among South African women child protection social workers

Abstract

Globally the well-being of child protection social workers (CPSWs) is placed at risk by the taxing nature of their profession. In response, there have been international calls for the prioritization of CPSWs’ resilience. Despite the call to enhance the resilience of CPSWs, to date, only five research studies have explored resilience processes in CPSWs. In this article, we present findings that describe resilience-enhancing practices in the lives of 15 South African CPSWs who were considered resilient. They were recruited by means of snowball sampling and engaged in in-depth interviews. Findings reveal that the overall well-being and functioning of these 15 South African CPSWs are endangered by several occupational risk factors including work pressure, inadequate professional support, financial strain, challenges unique to CPSW such as removal of children and exposure to aggressive clients, and emotional exhaustion. Their resilience was informed by four differently weighted but interrelated resilience practices: practice- and purpose-informing creeds, support systems, constructive transactions, and accentuating the positive. These practices are potentially useful to contribute to the body of knowledge on CPSWs’ resilience as well as to the development of resilience-enhancing guidelines and subsequent intervention programmes with the purpose of protecting CPSWs globally and contributing to efficient service delivery. However, given the dynamic nature of resilience, continued explorations of CPSW resilience processes in different cultural contexts are needed.