Date of Award

Fall 12-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Psychology

Program/Concentration

Psychology

Committee Director

Catherine R. Glenn

Committee Member

Sage E. Hawn

Committee Member

James F. Paulson

Abstract

Crisis lines provide a free crisis response service that is highly accessible to individuals who are at elevated risk of suicide and may not be otherwise connected with care. In order to best tailor crisis line interventions to youth populations, a number of youth-to-youth crisis lines invite youth callers to connect with trained youth volunteers. While prior research has examined adult crisis lines workers’ experience and well-being and identified key factors that predict positive and negative volunteering outcomes, far less is known about similar determinants of experience and well-being among adolescent volunteers on youth-to-youth crisis lines. The purpose of this study was to explore the longitudinal development of social factors (peer support and supervisory support) and intrapersonal factors (self-compassion and self-efficacy) among youth-to-youth crisis line volunteers over their first year of volunteering and to test the longitudinal impact of within-person fluctuation in these factors on both positive and negative experience and well-being outcomes. Results suggested that self-compassion and self-efficacy increased over youth’s first year of volunteering. These findings highlight the potential benefits for youth volunteering on youth-to-youth crisis lines. The social and intrapersonal factors were correlated with the majority of the experience and well-being outcomes (e.g., compassion satisfaction, burnout, secondary traumatic stress) in the expected directions at baseline. However, when the social and intrapersonal factors were explored as within-person predictors of these outcomes at the subsequent study time points (3 months intervals), no significant lagged effects were found. Significant associations between study variables at baseline suggest that these factors are relevant to volunteer experience and well-being, but the lack of significant lagged effects suggests that within-person fluctuations in these factors do not predict volunteer outcomes three months later. Future research is warranted to explore trajectories earlier in the crisis line experience, such as during training, and to explore lagged effects on different timescales, such as a weekly basis. Additional studies could also examine potential moderators of trajectories and lagged relationships. Further research is warranted to continue to explore the benefits and risks of youth crisis line volunteering and to identify factors that may impact youth volunteer experience and well-being.

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DOI

10.25777/fgzn-1113

ISBN

9798276040110

ORCID

0000-0002-5023-7634

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