Cumulative Harm Impact Questionnaire

The impact of repeated and chronic adverse childhood events, known as cumulative harm, often results in lifelong consequences including complex trauma. Trauma that is experienced early in life, has the potential for life-long negative outcomes across the major domains of personal and social functioning. The significant effects of cumulative harm may influence all aspects of an individual’s life course, including relationships, parenting strategies and career decisions.

Research identifies many factors motivating individual’s decision to enter the helping professions, with an emphasis placed in the desire to make a difference and to use traits they perceive as well aligned with the profession. When considering these career motivators in the context of childhood adversity experienced by helping professionals, research also cautions as to the potential risks of burnout, retraumatisation and vicarious secondary trauma. Research has highlighted a connection between trauma and career choice, however there is a lack of research which pertains specifically to cumulative harm, experienced by helping professionals.

Helping Professions, in the context of this proposed research study, are defined as those professions which respond to the welfare of individuals and address challenges in a person’s physical, psychological, intellectual, and emotional wellbeing. These professions include, but are not limited to, psychology, nursing, counselling, social work, human services, and education.

This research will be undertaken as part of a PhD and aims to: a) examine the lived experience of cumulative harm from the perspective of those who have experienced it first hand; b) investigate the influence of cumulative harm on career choice; and c) develop a scale for the identification and assessment of cumulative harm and its impact.

The research team requests your assistance because of your decision to enter a helping profession.  We would like to collect your thoughts via a survey in order to better understand the experience of childhood adversity and career decision making.

Your participation will involve completion of an online questionnaire that will take approximately 15 minutes of your time.

Questions will relate to your childhood and early life experiences and motivators for entering a helping professions.

Your participation in this project is entirely voluntary. If you do not wish to take part, you are not obliged to. If you decide to take part and later change your mind, you are free to withdraw from the project at any stage. You may also request that any data collected about you be withdrawn and confidentially destroyed If you do wish to withdraw from this project or withdraw data collected about you, please contact the Research Team (contact details at the top of this form).

Your decision whether you take part, do not take part, or to take part and then withdraw, will in no way impact your current or future relationship with the University of Southern Queensland.

It is expected that this project will not directly benefit you. The outcome of this research is additional knowledge about cumulative harm. The benefit of this knowledge will extend to helping professionals who are responsible for assessing and intervening in work setting where there are potential cases of cumulative harm.

The potential risk is short term discomfort in discussing personal experiences. Sometimes thinking about the topics raised in the interview or survey may be associated with some uncomfortable feelings.  There is no greater risk beyond this level.

If you need to talk to someone about this immediately, please contact Lifeline crisis line 13 11 14

The following numbers are also provided should you wish to seek specific support from police (to report a crime), parent line (for concerns regarding parenting) or relationships Australia (relationship to domestic and family violence support).

Police Link 131444

Parent Line Telephone counselling: 1300301300

Relationships Australia: 1300 364 277

https://www.relationships.org.au/

You may also wish to consider consulting your General Practitioner (GP) for additional support.

Your data will be de-identified. You will create your own unique anonymous identity code. Only you and the researchers will know this code. You can use this code to request that your data be withdrawn from the project.

Researchers will email you a summary of the overall findings of the research. Only the research team will have access to your email address, which will not be used for any purpose other than those outlined.

The survey data will be available to other researchers after the project has been completed, the doctoral degree awarded, and all associated articles published. This data will be available in a redacted form. The survey data will be made available by request only, unless a journal publisher requires a redacted version of the data.

Any data collected as a part of this project will be stored securely as per University of Southern Queensland’s Research Data Management policy.

All comments and responses will be treated confidentially unless required by law.

Clicking on the ‘Submit’ button at the conclusion of the questionnaire is accepted as an indication of your consent to participate in this project.

Please refer to the Research Team Contact Details at the top of the form to have any questions answered or to request further information about this project.

If you have any concerns or complaints about the ethical conduct of the project, you may contact the University of Southern Queensland Manager of Research Integrity and Ethics on +61 7 4631 1839 or email researchintegrity@usq.edu.au. The Manager of Research Integrity and Ethics is not connected with the research project and can facilitate a resolution to your concern in an unbiased manner.

Thank you for taking the time to help with this research project. Please keep this sheet for your information.