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Attachment styles of helping volunteers and their coping with stress in the field of psychosocial help
Leonida Kobal Možina
Full text (pdf) | Views: 7 | Written in Slovene. | Published: December 20, 2007
Abstract: For many years I have been observing young adults who worked as volunteers in the field of psychosocial help. I have studied their functioning during summer psychotherapeutic camps, where they spent about 20 days with children and adolescents with heavier emotional and behaviour problems. Therapeutic camps based on the concept of milieu therapy often presented a stress factor for the volunteers, consisting mostly of students with no therapeutic education. I presumed they would differ in prevailing attachment styles, in their ways of coping with stress, and in constructive shifts when coping with stress. The sample consisted of 21 volunteers. Data were collected with The Attachment Style Questionnaire and with two semi-structured interviews and interpreted with the qualitative analysis. Volunteers with a preoccupied attachment style, for example, had difficulties with distancing themselves from inner experiencing in stressful situations and often went through intense emotional crises, helplessness, suffering; they were looking for constant support and held on to idealized individuals; they needed frequent feedback information about themselves and their work; self-image and self-evaluation depended on external factors. Volunteers with an avoidant attachment style, for example, avoided conflicts and emotional engagements by occupying themselves with work, activity; holding back emotions was often followed by intense anger outbursts; their reactions were inflexible and connected with their expectations and goals, thus exercising constant control in the relationship with their self-sufficient attitude.
Keywords: attachment behavior, coping behavior, stress, volunteer work, adults, volunteers
