Campus Location
Dallas Campus (Online)
Date of Award
12-2025
Document Type
Dissertation
Department
Organizational Leadership
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Committee Chair or Primary Advisor
Dr. Robert Haussmann
Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor
Dr. Ana Gomez de Torres
Third Committee Member or Committee Reader
Dr. Gordon Bourland
Abstract
Literature has suggested that secondary traumatic stress could cause various adverse effects for
individuals working with trauma-exposed populations. However, direct care workers performing
in shelters designed to serve unaccompanied immigrant children are faced with the task of caring
for these minors who may have been exposed to trauma in their home countries, while traveling
to the United States, or after arriving in the country. This qualitative case study was conducted to
understand and describe the experiences of 15 current employees and five ex-employees who
have worked with unaccompanied children for at least a year. These individuals participated in
in-depth personal interviews. The collected data were transcribed to construct five major themes
and 10 subthemes using initial, in vivo, and descriptive coding. The major themes included
service-oriented, exposure to traumatic experiences, challenges of working with trauma-exposed
unaccompanied children, training provided, attrition, and lack of support from the organizations.
The findings from this study imply that for this select group of direct care workers, the amount of
training provided may be adequate for some areas. However, training in other areas may present
challenges. The results of this study could encourage individuals and organizations faced with
the difficulty of obtaining or providing trauma-informed or self-care training to seek resources
that possess essential information to aid personnel in developing and maintaining protective
practices for their mental health.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Valdez, Juan, "Consequences of Secondary Traumatic Stress on Individuals Without Formal Psychological Training Working With Trauma-Exposed Children" (2025). Digital Commons @ ACU, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 973.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/973