Taoist thinking style and social workers’ vicarious trauma

The mediating roles of individual adaptabilities

Bibliographic Data

ID9974515
AuthorsJia‐lin Zhao (0000-0001-5943-0417, Nanjing University of Science and Technology), Jia-Lin Zhao (Nanjing University of Science and Technology), Zhan Yu (0000-0003-2792-8178, Huazhong Agricultural University, corresponding author), John Shields (0000-0001-8524-9857, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia), Li Shen (0009-0002-2377-8360, Nanjing University of Science and Technology), L J Shen (Nanjing University of Science and Technology)
Year2026
Publication date2026-03-27
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Social Work (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0020-8728 • E-ISSN: 1461-7234
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/00208728261427718
OpenAlexW7141808227
LanguageEN
References cited34

Guided by an ancient Chinese philosophy, Taoism, we investigate whether Taoist thinking style, including naturalness, non-striving, and acceptance, has the potential to lower vicarious trauma among social workers and the mediating role of individual adaptabilities. In a survey of 547 Chinese social workers, regression and path modeling showed that Taoist thinking was associated with less vicarious trauma, and that this association was largely accounted for by crisis-, work-stress-, and interpersonal-oriented adaptabilities. Accordingly, supervision and capacity-building may integrate Taoist-informed perspectives, cultivating acceptance, flexible crisis response, stress management, and collaborative practice, to bolster social workers’ well-being

Association (psychology · Chinese society · Cognitive style · Life style · Path analysis (statistics · Social relationship · Stress (linguistics · Style (visual arts · Child Abuse and Trauma · Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research · Social Work Education and Practice

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