Stress in censorship workers: the impact of distressing material

Abstract

Sexually explicit, violent, and other distressing material is considered harmful to the general population unless regulated in some way. Censorship and classification authorities exist in many countries to examine, regulate, and excise such material. Exposure to harmful material such as this may produce distress in the censorship worker. This exploratory study examined the potential for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Secondary Traumatic Stress, and burnout of those people working in the international field of censorship. Further, it reports on the coping strategies employed by this population and their job satisfaction. Self-report scales were used to examine the PTSD symptoms, the coping strategies, and the propensity for burnout, Secondary Traumatic Stress, and satisfaction among an international sample of censorship workers (N = 70). Despite the material they are exposed to, censorship workers scores do not suffer from PTSD, Secondary Traumatic Stress or burnout. Censorship workers utilise a cluster of coping strategies to assist their work discriminable from those of a control group (middle management white collar workers, N = 50), and they appear to derive high levels of satisfaction from their work. A model of how coping strategies mediate the stress from the material and exposure outcomes was constructed. This study initiates research on this unique population and locates itself within the trauma and coping fields.