Date

7-2021

Document Type

Capstone Project (Open Access)

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science (B.S.)

Department

Liberal Studies

Abstract

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) can cause many challenges in a child’s life that could affect social skills, behaviors and communication (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Working with Children on the Autism spectrum can add additional stress to a job and often leads to job burnout. Burnout in relation to jobs and careers is described as “prolonged exposure to emotional and interpersonal stressors” (Alessandri et. al, 2018). There are many different careers that strive to help children strengthen these skills or find alternative ways to live with the challenges that they may have such as special education teachers, paraprofessionals, and multiple types of therapists. More specifically, Behavior Technicians often spend many hours with both the child and family within their home environments and are fully immersed in their day to day lives. Though many people pursue these types of careers with the drive to help, many also don’t understand the emotional aspect of these careers or how to work through it. Being able to learn how to work through the emotions can help create longevity in the field and avoid experiencing a burnout from the emotional experiences that are attributed to these types of jobs. The culprit of burnout in this field is often emotional exhaustion (Neuman et. al, 1990). Emotional exhaustion can best be explained as “exceeding a person’s coping capacity” (Hülsheger et. al, 2013). This emphasises the importance of understanding burnout and being knowledgeable on strategies which allow a professional such as a Behavior Technician to manage and prevent emotional exhaustion and burnout. To address the need for education on preventing burnout, I will be providing a workshop to Behavior Technicians who are currently working with children within the field and may need extra support to provide longevity for their career.

Download

Share

COinS