Page 47 - IJPS-9-2

International Journal of
Population Studies Professional quality of life – a mediation model

containing consent information in the online version of measures 3 components: Compassion satisfaction,
the questionnaire. On this page, the authors explained burnout, and STS. The last two components form the CF
that the questionnaire includes some potentially scale. A composite score cannot be computed. Respondents
distressing items. In that respect, the respondents rate each one of the 30 statements on a five-point Likert
were directed to support resources appropriate for scale (1 = “Never” to 5 = “Very often”). In this research,
child protective employees. Moreover, the authors the subsets measuring secondary trauma, burnout, and
provided their contact information on the consent compassion satisfaction all show favorable levels of internal
page for further details about the study and stated that reliability as indicated by the values of Cronbach’s alpha,
respondents could drop out of the process at any time which are 0.73, 0.80, and 0.86 respectively. The alpha scale
with no consequences. Pressing the “Continue” button reliability is 0.88 for compassion satisfaction, 0.75 for
represented the employee’s approval to participate in the burnout, and 0.81 for STS, as extracted from the ProQoL
study, understanding its voluntary nature. No incentives Manual (Stamm, 2010).
were used in this study. Approval to perform this study
was granted by the Ethics Committee of the University 2.3.2. ACEs international questionnaire (ACE-IQ)
of Bucharest (23.04.2020/No. 22). The World Health Organization’s ACE-IQ (n.d.), is aimed

2.2. Participants at assessing ACEs of adults worldwide and determining
their link with subsequent risk-taking behaviors. Questions
The required sample size was computed with the help cover a total of 13 categories of childhood experiences such
of the semTools package (Jorgensen et al., 2021) from as physical, sexual, and emotional abuse and neglect by
R (R Core Team, 2020). Hence, to reach α = 0.05, parents or caregivers, peer violence, witnessing community
RMSEA = 0.08, and a power of.80, the sample size would violence, and exposure to collective violence. The total
have to consist of 295 participants. At first, 348 foster ACE score for an individual can vary between 0 and 13,
parents and 172 specialists were interested in completing with 0 meaning no childhood adverse experiences. The
the survey containing the proposed questionnaires. internal consistency value within this sample was α = 0.79.
Unfortunately, 173 (50%) foster parents and 68 (39%)
specialists did not manage to finish the task; therefore, 2.3.3. Revised adult attachment scale (R-AS)
the authors were unable to obtain the suggested sample The R-AS scale developed by Collins (1996) assesses
size after performing the power analysis. In addition to variations in attachment styles among individuals. The
this, 56 surveys were deleted due to a substantial amount scale is composed of three subsets: Close, Depend, and
of missing data. In the end, 223 participants including Anxiety; and each consists of 6 items on a Likert response
130 foster parents and 93 specialists completed the format. The Close subset evaluates how at ease a person is
online survey. The group of foster parents included in with intimacy. The Depend subset examines the degree to
the present research is a subset of a bigger pool (n = 165) which a person feels they can rely on others to be present
that was previously studied to investigate the impact of
foster parent sensitivity toward child trauma on their job when needed. Finally, the Anxiety subset measures how
satisfaction (Teculeasa et al., 2022). much a person is concerned about being spurned or
unloved. Higher scores on the Close and Depend subsets
The mean age of the sample (n = 223) is 50.17 years indicate a more secure attachment, while higher scores on
(SD = 8.03) for foster parents and 46.44 years (SD = 9.48) Anxiety have the opposite effect. The internal consistency
for specialists. Regarding the gender of the sample, 92% of values within this sample were as follows: α = 0.72 for
the participants are females, and 8% are males. Of the total the Anxiety subset, α = 0.75 for the Depend subset, and
sample, 58% is represented by foster parents, and 42% is α = 0.69 for the Close subset.
represented by specialists. As for the work experience of
the employees, 58% of foster parents and 48% of specialists 2.3.4. Closeness in the child-employee dyad
have been employed in the institutions for more than This variable refers to the perception the employee has
10 years. about the relationship between the worker and the child

2.3. Measures in terms of closeness. It was measured using an item
that was constructed by the authors of this study – “How
2.3.1. ProQOL questionnaire close or attached to the children you work with are
Stamm (2010) states that the ProQOL questionnaire serves you?”. A Likert format was employed, which includes the
as the primary assessment tool for gauging the beneficial or following answers: 5 = “Very close, we have a parent-child
detrimental impact of dealing with individuals who have relationship”, 4 = “Close, like the child is part of my family”,
encountered highly traumatic situations. The questionnaire 3 = “Sufficiently close”, 2 = “More or less close”, 1 = “I don’t

Volume 9 Issue 2 (2023) 41 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.0884