Abstract
Based on the transdiagnostic model of rumination and empathy-based stress process, this study examined the mediating role of rumination components (reflection and brooding) in the association of secondary traumatic stress with internalizing symptoms of depression and anxiety among Filipino psychosocial mental health practitioners such as psychometricians, psychologists, guidance counselors, and social workers. A total of 192 practitioners recruited from their respective professional organizations answered the online survey. The means and standard deviations were calculated to describe the levels of the study variables. Pearson Product Moment Correlation was employed to examine correlations. Standard (Delta) method was used to examine the multiple mediator model, and bias-corrected (BC) bootstrapping was employed to test the significance of the reflection and brooding indirect effects. The results showed practitioners’ mild levels of secondary traumatic stress (M = 36.40, SD = 10.60), reflection (M = 11.00, SD = 3.54), brooding (M = 10.20, SD = 3.48), and internalizing symptoms (M = 12.00, SD = 9.98). All variables were significantly and positively associated with each other (r = 0.40 – 0.77, p <.001). Brooding (B = 0.15, 95% CI = 0.08, 0.25, p <.001), and not reflection (B = 0.02, 95% CI = - 0.02, 0.06, p = 0.47), was a significant partial mediator in the association of secondary traumatic stress with internalizing symptoms, suggesting that managing brooding tendencies may help prevent internalizing symptoms when secondary traumatic stress pre-exists. The findings supported brooding as a maladaptive component of rumination, while it is argued that reflection is more neutral than adaptive when it concurrently happens with brooding, and depending on the contents of reflective thinking determines its nature and well-being outcomes. Theoretical implications, methodological limitations, and ways forward in the Philippine context were also offered.
