תפיסת תפקיד ושחיקה בקרב עובדים עם מתבגרים במצבי סיכון: היבט רב תרבותי

Youth care workers (YCW) who work within their ethno-cultural minority groups may face role conflicts since on the one hand they represent the establishment while on the other they may identify with their own ethno-cultural group. This study aimed to examine their role perception and burnout, and its relationship to their acculturation strategy. It further compared the relative contribution of acculturation as a predictor of role perception and burnout levels, with that of the worker’s coping patterns and working-environment perceptions. Self-report questionnaires were filled in by 247 YCWs (62 native-Israeli Jews, 64 Israeli Arabs, 60 Ethiopian immigrants, and 61 immigrants from the CIS). No significant differences in role perception and burnout levels were found between native Israeli YCW and their minority-member counterparts. No significant association was found between acculturation strategy, role perception and burnout. The relative contribution of personal coping patterns and working-environment perceptions to the prediction of role perception and burnout levels was of greater significance than that of acculturation strategy. Finally, acculturation was revealed as a two-dimensional construct, in which each dimension acts distinctly. The results demonstrate how acculturation strategies act differently in distinct ethno-cultural minority groups, and that acculturation does not necessarily take a major role in predicting dependent variables such as role perception and burnout.