Bridging Cultures in Trauma Work: The Adaptation and Validation of the Vicarious Resilience Scale in the Context of Gender-Based Violence in China

This study aimed to adapt and validate the Vicarious Resilience Scale (VRS) for Chinese helping professionals working with survivors of gender-based violence (GBV), which addressed a critical gap in the literature on positive psychosocial impacts of trauma work, particularly in China. The VRS was translated and back-translated by a translation committee, following the guidelines by Sousa and Rojjanasrirat. Pilot testing was conducted to ensure content clarity and equivalence. A convenience and snowball sampling approach recruited 67 helping professionals over approximately 6 months, including mental health counselors, social workers, and other service providers, such as medical and legal professionals. Approximately half of the sample was identified as queer (gay, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual). An exploratory factor analysis revealed a seven-factor structure of the Chinese VRS, which partially aligns with the original scale while reflecting culturally specific differences. Four items were removed due to poor factor loadings and cross-loadings. The adapted scale demonstrated good internal consistency, reliability, and satisfactory convergent validity with related constructs, including compassion, satisfaction, and burnout. However, no significant correlation was found between secondary traumatic stress and self-compassion. These findings suggest that vicarious resilience can be conceptualized in ways that are both universal and culturally specific across diverse contexts. For example, among Chinese helping professionals, most of whom are non-religious and navigate power within a distinct sociopolitical context, the meanings of self-care and social-location awareness may diverge from Western norms. This study marks the first step toward a culturally attuned tool that helps Chinese helping professionals, agencies, supervisors, and researchers open structured conversations about resilience and tailor supports, such as intentional self-care, peer groups, and hope-focused supervision, to sustain GBV practitioners. By pinpointing which factors bolster vicarious resilience, the scale can also guide educator curricula and inform policy decisions on funding, protected time, and targeted resources to safeguard this workforce's well-being.