Study title

Diaconia Barometers chart the diaconal workers' views and experiences of their work. The survey examined the areas and emphases of diaconal work, views of diaconal work, and enjoyment of work. The respondents were asked the extent to which various areas of diaconia were part of the work in their parish (e.g. preventive social work, health promotion), in what ways poverty was visible in their work, who was responsible for deciding the content/tasks in their work, whether their job had a clear job description, whether they received enough support from their supervisor, how interesting they regarded their job, and how much they liked their job. Further questions covered, among others, experiences of threat of violence at work, number of qualified applicants for open diaconal positions of the parish, and whether the parish offered traineeship positions. Background variables included the respondent's diocese, year of birth, gender, education, number of work years in diaconal work, number of inhabitants in the municipality, number of members in the parish, and whether the respondent worked in a supervisory position.