Managing the Impacts of Exposure to Trauma on Injury and Violence Research Teams

Witnessing violence and injury in research can elicit affective and cognitive reactions. It is imperative that research teams develop trauma-responsive interventions, but little is known about their effectiveness. A convenience sample of violence and injury scholars ( n = 64) was recruited through listservs and social media. Scholars answered an online survey about their experience managing research teams and the perceived effectiveness of interventions. Strategies and their perceived effectiveness were described, and a linear regression indicated factors associated with the number of strategies used. Qualitative responses were analyzed using content analysis. This study found that supervisors used a variety of intervention techniques. Most methods were perceived as moderately effective, while requiring time off and having a team member dedicated to well-being programing were rated as highly effective. Qualitative data indicated that to be effective, these strategies needed to be paired with genuine, expressed care for supervisees’ well-being and behavior modeling. The number of strategies used was influenced by supervision experience and one’s belief that researchers could be impacted by trauma exposure. This study indicated that researchers need a variety of strategies to intervene in vicarious trauma. More experimental research is needed to test the long-term effectiveness of such interventions.