Is Self-Care a Stand-In for Feminized Social Privilege? A Systematic Review of Self-Care Facilitators and Barriers to Self-Care Practices in Social Work

ABSTRACT

Purpose

The purpose of this systematic review is to fill the gap in a critical understanding of peer-reviewed empirical research on self-care practices to identify structural, relational, and individual-level facilitators and barriers to self-care practices in social work.

Method

We followed the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis for this systematic review of peer-reviewed quantitative and qualitative empirical research articles focusing on self-care in social work among adult social work practitioners and students.

Results

Twenty-one articles related to empirical studies of self-care were identified in the systematic review process with samples of social work practitioners (n = 15), social work students (n = 3), and social work educators (n = 3).

Discussion

Social workers engaged in self-care practices are more likely to be healthy, work less, be White, and have higher socioeconomic professional status and privilege, indicating current conceptualizations of self-care may not be accessible and contextually and culturally relevant for many social workers.

Conclusion

Overwhelmingly, results indicated social workers reporting greater sociostructural, economic, professional, and physical health privilege engaged in more self-care. No articles directly assessed institutional factors that may drive distress among social workers and clients. Rather, self-care was framed as a personal responsibility without integration of feminized and racialized inequities in a sociopolitical and historical context. Such framings may replicate rather than redress unsustainable inequities experienced by social workers and clients.

KEYWORDS:

• Self-care
• compassion fatigue
• social work
• self-compassion

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the National Institutes of Health - U.S. [R01AA028201].