The Role of Demographics, Professional Quality of Life and Public Image in Social Workers' Self-Esteem

Professional self-esteem refers to the value that individuals attach to their career and professional position. It constitutes part of their professional and personal identities and is based on the positive and negative experiences and meanings that they attribute to their work. The current study examined the contribution of select demographic variables (gender, length of professional experience and satisfaction with pay), variables related to professional quality of life (secondary traumatic stress, burnout and compassion satisfaction) and SWs' view of their public image, to explaining their professional self-esteem. The research findings reveal that SWs with greater professional experience, higher satisfaction with pay, higher compassion satisfaction, lower self-reported burnout and a more positive view of their public image reported higher professional self-esteem. Yet, gender and secondary traumatic stress did not contribute to explaining SWs' professional self-esteem. Furthermore, the current study indicates that of all the research variables, compassion satisfaction contributed the most to explaining SWs' professional self-esteem. This finding implies that SWs' satisfaction with their ability to express the values of their profession in practice by granting their clients an optimal response and assistance is the main factor shaping positive professional self-esteem. Professional self-esteem refers to the importance that individuals attribute to their profession. It plays an important role in many personal and work-related aspects in the life of social workers (SWs). The purpose of the current study was to examine the contribution of select demographic variables (gender, length of professional experience and satisfaction with pay), variables related to professional quality of life (secondary traumatic stress, burnout and compassion satisfaction) and SWs' view of their public image, to explaining their professional self-esteem. The data for this study were collected using structured online questionnaires administered to a convenience sample of 350 SWs in Israel. A three-step hierarchical regression was conducted to examine the contribution of independent variables to explaining SWs' professional self-esteem. The findings show that SWs with greater professional experience, higher satisfaction with pay, higher compassion satisfaction, lower self-reported burnout and a more positive view of their public image reported higher professional self-esteem. Yet, gender and secondary traumatic stress did not contribute to explaining SWs' professional self-esteem. Hence, to improve the professional self-esteem of SWs, efforts must be made to improve their professional quality of life and public image.