학술논문

What helps the helpers? Resilience and risk factors for general and profession-specific mental health problems in psychotherapists during the COVID-19 pandemic
Document Type
article
Source
Frontiers in Psychology, Vol 14 (2023)
Subject
stress
adversity
mentalizing
positive reappraisal
self-compassion
mental health professionals
Psychology
BF1-990
Language
English
ISSN
1664-1078
Abstract
IntroductionAlthough the COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected wellbeing of at-risk groups, most research on resilience employed convenience samples. We investigated psychosocial resilience and risk factors (RFs) for the wellbeing of psychotherapists and other mental health practitioners, an under-researched population that provides essential support for other at-risk groups and was uniquely burdened by the pandemic.MethodWe examined 18 psychosocial factors for their association with resilience, of which four were chosen due to their likely relevance specifically for therapists, in a cross-sectional multi-national sample (N = 569) surveyed between June and September 2020. Resilience was operationalized dimensionally and outcome-based as lower stressor reactivity (SR), meaning fewer mental health problems than predicted given a participant’s levels of stressor exposure. General SR (SRG) scores expressed reactivity in terms of general internalizing problems, while profession-specific SR (SRS) scores expressed reactivity in terms of burnout and secondary trauma, typical problems of mental health practitioners.ResultsFactors previously identified as RFs in other populations, including perceived social support, optimism and self-compassion, were almost all significant in the study population (SRG: 18/18 RFs, absolute βs = 0.16–0.40; SRS: 15/18 RFs, absolute βs = 0.19–0.39 all Ps