Abstract
This study aimed to verify and analyze perceived stress and coping strategies in professionals from institutional shelters. This is a descriptive correlational empirical study conducted with a purposeful sample of 45 professionals from four institutional shelters who were in direct and indirect contact with sheltered individuals. Data were collected using four instruments: institutional shelter characterization form; participant characterization form; the Impact of Event Scale (IES); and the Brief-COPE. Results were analyzed using descriptive (maximum and minimum values of coping subscales) and inferential statistics (linear and non-parametric regression analysis - Spearman’s correlation, considering the nature and distribution of the scores). Both the IES and Brief-COPE instruments were applied according to the instructions of the adaptations adopted for this study. Professionals from philanthropic institutional shelters in direct contact with sheltered individuals showed higher levels of perceived stress. In both shelters, the most used coping strategy was problem-focused coping, whereas emotion- and maladaptation-focused coping showed the highest correlation with stress. Type of shelter, working day, education level, and emotion- and maladaptive-focused coping were stress predictors. Our results indicate that developing appropriate actions and policies aimed at shelter professionals require the assessment of their health, enabling authorities to detect the needs for improvement and professional training programs, contributing to the quality of care for sheltered children and adolescents.
Keywords:
Shelter; Stress; Coping; Adaptation Psychological