Mental Health, Coping Strategies and Self-Care Practices Among Professionals Who Work With People Who Experience or Have Experienced Domestic Violence: A Quantitative Study

Scand J Caring Sci. 2026 Jun;40(2):e70264. doi: 10.1111/scs.70264.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Domestic violence (DV) profoundly affects not only those who experience or have experienced it but also the professionals who support them, exposing workers to trauma narratives and operational pressures that may harm mental health.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined depressive (PHQ-9) and generalised anxiety (GAD-7) symptoms among Portuguese DV-service professionals (n = 251) and assessed whether coping domains and self-care are associated with-and may condition-the links between burnout, secondary traumatic stress (STS) and symptoms.

METHODS: Participants completed ProQOL-5 (compassion satisfaction [CS], burnout, STS), PHQ-9, GAD-7, the Brief COPE (higher-order: avoidant, self-sufficient, socially supported) and a self-care capacity scale (EACAC). Analyses comprised correlations and three-step hierarchical regressions, with interaction terms between burnout, STS and theoretically selected coping and self-care variables entered at Step 3 to test moderation.

RESULTS: DV professionals reported moderate levels of burnout, STS and CS, along with mild depressive and generalised anxiety symptoms. Across correlations and regressions, burnout and STS were positively associated with both symptom domains; avoidant coping aligned with higher symptoms, and self-care aligned with lower symptoms. The hierarchical regressions explained 61.7% (PHQ-9) and 54.9% (GAD-7) of variance in Step 2. Evidence for moderation was limited and exploratory: although the interaction block did not reach conventional significance for either outcome, one individual interaction term-Burnout × Avoidant coping-was significant for generalised anxiety symptoms, suggesting that the positive association between burnout and generalised anxiety symptoms may be stronger at higher levels of avoidant coping.

CONCLUSION: Findings consolidate robust correlational signals-higher burnout/STS and greater avoidance co-occur with higher symptoms, while self-care co-occurs with lower symptoms-and motivate longitudinal and intervention research to test causal leverage and evaluate whether targeting avoidance and routine self-care can improve mental-health outcomes in DV services.

PMID:42186394 | DOI:10.1111/scs.70264