Helping Trainees Care for Themselves: A New Self-Care Survey

What is it about?

Self-care is essential for psychology doctoral students and is seen as a core part of their professional training. It helps prevent burnout and supports ethical, effective care for the people they serve. Despite its importance, self-care hasn’t been studied much—partly because there hasn’t been a good tool to measure it. This study aimed to create and test a new self-care questionnaire for psychology students. In the first phase, 232 students from accredited programs helped us develop the tool, and a smaller group of 28 gave feedback to improve it. In the second phase, we tested the updated version—called the Self-Care Behavior Inventory—alongside other well-known surveys on burnout, well-being, and stress. The results showed that self-care among students can be grouped into three areas: emotional and relationship-based care, physical care, and spiritual care. These findings can help training programs better support students’ well-being. We also point out some limitations of the study and suggest areas for future research. Overall, this work offers a new way to understand and promote self-care in the field of psychology.

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Photo by Ava Sol on Unsplash

Photo by Ava Sol on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This scholarship is important because it fills a major gap in the field of psychology—there hasn’t been a clear, reliable way to measure how psychology students take care of themselves. Without good self-care, students are at risk of burnout, which can harm both their well-being and the people they work with. By developing the Self-Care Behavior Inventory, this research provides a practical tool that programs can use to better support students. It also helps make self-care a more visible and serious part of professional training, rather than something that’s just encouraged informally. Understanding the different types of self-care—emotional, physical, and spiritual—can help educators and institutions create more targeted support. Ultimately, this work supports healthier, more effective future psychologists, which benefits everyone they go on to serve. It also opens the door for more research on self-care.