Exploring the Concept of Blocked Care in a Young Forensic Population

This study aimed to explore blocked care (compassion fatigue and burnout) within secure and non-secure children's residential settings by examining how blocked care relates to therapeutic parenting (a sensitive parenting style that incorporates empathy) and how those employed to care for children in these settings typically cope with blocked care. Using a quantitative design, 73 adults completed three measures via Qualtrics assessing their compassion fatigue, burnout, secondary traumatic stress, and empathy within the previous 30 days, and tendency to use problem-focused, emotion-focused, and/or avoidant coping strategies. Multiple regression analyses showed that burnout and secondary traumatic stress significantly predicted compassion fatigue (R² = 0.208), and that burnout, compassion fatigue, and empathy significantly predicted secondary traumatic stress (R² = 0.474). Empathy did not significantly predict compassion fatigue or burnout. Avoidant coping significantly predicted compassion fatigue (R² = 0.108), burnout (R² = 0.270), and secondary traumatic stress (R² = 0.352), while emotion-focused coping also significantly predicted secondary traumatic stress (R² = 0.352). Problem-focused coping did not significantly predict any outcome. This study contributes towards the limited literature on blocked care with consideration of the importance of understanding blocked care and secondary traumatic stress. It also suggests how blocked care and secondary traumatic stress could be managed. However, this study has several limitations, including the use of self-reported measures, which are discussed along with proposals for future research.