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Managing Stress in Humanitarian Aid Workers - Guidelines for Good Practice. [PDF 559.2 kB]

Research Procedures and Materials

In order to understand the deployment experience of field staff, we ask each participant to complete a questionnaire at three different moments; one questionnaire before they leave on assignment, one when they return (either at the end of a contract or earlier due to circumstances), and one 3 to 6 months after they have returned. The information gathered by the questionnaires includes; demographics, pre-deployment level of preparation, daily living conditions, trauma experiences (current and previous missions), psychiatric history, motivation for doing humanitarian work, organizational values, characteristics of current mission , social support, coping strategies, health symptoms, depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, burnout, personal accomplishment, and life satisfaction. We also ask the field staff to take three simple swabs with cotton of their mouth three times in one day for each of the three survey times. The purpose of these swabs is for our research to examine the saliva for levels of stress hormones.

Participating Organizations

Given the large number and variability in humanitarian organizations, this study has drawn a sample from 'mainstream' organizations; both faith-based and non-faith based, that met the following criteria:

• Agencies in existence for more than five years
• Agencies with an established record of international funding
• Agencies operating with a humanitarian imperative (emergency relief and/or development)
• Agencies with a record of operations in at-risk countries, including low-income countries or those affected by chronic crisis
• Agencies deploying a minimum of 20 expatriate staff to the field per year

The 17 organizations that agreed to participate have committed to participation for the whole period of data collection. Each organization has appointed a focal person within the organization. This focal person will be the first contact point between deployed field staff and the research coordinator. All focal persons have taken part in a preparation meeting, complete training on research and confidentiality, and sign a commitment to confidentiality.

Participants in the research

From the 17 participating NGOs, we are recruiting about 400 participants.
Selection criteria of participants are:

• Expatriate workers; defined as aid workers who are hired by one of the participating NGOs and are working in a country other than their native country
• Minimum length of deployment is 3 months and maximum length is 12 months
• Sufficient level of reading and speaking English
• Aged 18-65 years

Participants will be recruited before the start of their mission, including international aid workers with previous experience and those new to the field.

Time plan of the research

The recruitment of NGOs and enrolment of respondents started in early 2005. 17 NGOs are enrolled. Currently the data is in the process of being gathered. The final report of the research is projected to be ready in 2010.