SUPERVISOR EMOTIONAL MATURITY, PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY, AND TRAUMATIC STRESS IN COLLEGE STUDENT AFFAIRS - research study

Oct 15, 2026

The COVID-19 pandemic created intense stress for student affairs professionals, exposing them to events that can be traumatic under changing workplace conditions and health and safety risks. This study examined how supervisors’ emotional maturity shaped supervisees’ trauma exposure responses, using psychological safety as a mediating mechanism. Data from student affairs professionals at four-year institutions showed that greater emotional maturity in supervisors increased psychological safety, which in turn predicted lower adverse reactions to both primary and secondary traumatic stress.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages20

Reading Time50 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Literature Review

Supervisor Emotional Maturity

COVID-19 and Primary Trauma for Student Affairs Professionals

SUPERVISOR EMOTIONAL MATURITY, PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY, AND TRAUMATIC STRESS IN COLLEGE STUDENT AFFAIRS R. Jason Lynch Chelsea Gilbert Appalachian State University Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic placed an immense amount of stress on student affairs professionals, who were exposed to numerous potentially traumatic events as a result of changing workplace environments, health and safety risks, and their emotional support of students. This study explored the impact of supervisor emotional maturity on supervisee trauma exposure response through the mediating effect of psychological safety for a sample of student affairs professionals employed at 4-year institutions. Results indicated that supervisees who felt that their supervisors were more emotionally mature felt more psychologically safe and that this psychological safety predicted lower adverse reactions to both primary and secondary traumatic stress in workplace contexts. Implications for the training and development of student affairs supervisors are explored, as well as for further research into the construct of emotional maturity as it relates to supervision. Please direct inquires about this manuscript to: R. Jason Lynch, [lynchrj@appstate.edu](lynchrj@appstate.edu) College Student Affairs Journal, Volume 41(2), pp. 32-51 ISSN 2381-2338 Copyright 2023 Southern Association for College Student Affairs All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. 33 College Student Affairs Journal Vol. 41, No. 2, 2023 et al., 2014; Lynch & Glass, 2018, 2020; Knight, 2010), ever-present challenges within student affairs given the impact of the so-called Great Resignation (BusinessWire, 2022) . These challenges are further compounded by growing mental health challenges faced by college students (Shalka, 2019) alongside limited resources for collegiate mental health support (Abrams, 2022), which has resulted in greater demands placed upon student affairs practitioners and, therefore, greater risk of secondary trauma (Lynch & Glass, 2018, 2020) . Supervision has been identified in emerging literature as a promising protective strategy for student affairs practitioners facing both primary and secondary trauma (Gilbert & Burden, 2022) . However, many student affairs supervisors are underprepared for their roles (Calhoun & Nasser, 2013), and recommendations for effective trauma-informed supervisory practices in higher education are still emergent (Gilbert, 2022a; Gilbert, 2022b) . Scholars outside of higher education have identified that supervisors may impact their employees’ responses to workplace trauma by applying trauma-informed supervision, a framework that incorporates the broader principles of trauma-informed practice--safety, trust, choice, collaboration, and empowerment—into supervisory relationships (Berger & Quiros, 2014; Fallot, 2011; Thompson et al., 2014) . Relatedly, existing scholarship outside the realm of higher education has also argued the importance of psychological safety as a key component for healing trauma and preventing retraumatization (Reeves et al., 2010) . Within a workplace, psychological safety can be defined as an environment “[where] employees feel safe to voice ideas, willingly seek feedback, provide honest feedback, collaborate, take risks, and experiment”(Newman et al., 2017, p. 521). The construct of emotional maturity (Gibson, 2015) offers a helpful framework for understanding the effectiveness of supervisory practices in establishing psychological safety in the midst of a traumatic environment and has potential implications for student affairs supervisors Supervisor Emotional Maturity (and those who hire and develop them) to become a sought-after skill. In order to explore the connection between the emotional maturity of college student affairs supervisors and practitioners sense of workplace psychological safety, we were guided by the fol[lowing questions: To what degree do U.S. college](lowing questions: To what degree do U.S. co

FAQs

How did supervisor emotional maturity affect supervisees in this study?

Supervisees reported greater psychological safety when they perceived their supervisors as more emotionally mature.

What role did psychological safety play in trauma-related outcomes?

Psychological safety mediated the relationship and predicted lower adverse reactions to both primary and secondary traumatic stress in workplace contexts.

What kinds of trauma does the paper define and discuss for student affairs professionals?

Trauma is defined as disturbing experiences that produce prolonged negative effects, and the paper contrasts acute and chronic trauma, using COVID-19 as a chronic form of primary trauma for many professionals.

Oct 15, 2026

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