Associations between self-care practices and psychological adjustment of mental health professionals: a two-wave cross-lagged analysis

ABSTRACT

Cultivation of self-care is believed to foster more well-being and to mitigate the psychological difficulties that mental health professionals experience. However, how the well-being and psychological distress of these professionals impact their personal self-care practice is rarely discussed. In fact, studies have yet to investigate whether the use of self-care improves mental health, or whether being in a better place psychologically makes professionals more prone to using self-care (or both). The present study aims to clarify the longitudinal associations between self-care practices and five indicators of psychological adjustment (well-being, posttraumatic growth, anxiety, depression, and compassion fatigue). A sample of 358 mental health professionals were assessed twice (within a 10-month interval). A cross-lagged model tested all associations between self-care and psychological adjustment indicators. Results showed that self-care at T1 predicted increases in well-being and in post-traumatic growth, and a reduction in anxiety and depression at T2. However, only anxiety at T1 significantly predicted greater self-care at T2. No significant cross-lagged associations were found between self-care and compassion fatigue. Overall, findings suggest that implementing self-care is a good way for mental health workers to “take care of themselves.” However, more research is needed to understand what leads these workers to use self-care.

KEYWORDS:

• Self-care
• mental health professionals
• well-being
• distress
• cross-lagged model
• psychological adjustment

Acknowledgments

We sincerely thank the mental health professionals who took part in this study for their willingness to share their experience and the professional associations who kindly assisted us.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.