(PS8-12) Self-Care and Wellbeing Among Clinical Psychology Doctoral Students

Abstract Text: Approximately 75% of health service psychology doctoral students endorse experiencing burnout at some point in their training (Swords & Ellis, 2017). Engaging in self-care can help trainees manage their stress, maintain their wellbeing, and preserve quality client care, but there may be variability in trainees’ experiences with self-care and wellbeing. Unlike prior research, the present study examined sociodemographic (e.g., race/ethnicity, sexual orientation) and program-related (e.g., year level, degree type) differences in clinical psychology doctoral students’ wellbeing and self-care using cross-sectional self-report survey data. Clinical psychology doctoral students (N = 200) from APA-accredited programs across the United States completed self-report measures of their sociodemographics, doctoral program factors, self-care, life satisfaction, and psychological distress. Consistent with the focus on structural and identity factors in ABCT’s 2025 convention theme, approximately 28% of the sample identified as racial and/or ethnic minorities, and approximately 34% identified as sexual minorities. Additionally, approximately 52% of the sample reported attending PhD programs, compared to approximately 48% who reported attending PsyD programs. MANOVAs were conducted to examine differences among the five personal and professional self-care domains, and t-tests or ANOVAs were conducted to examine differences among the wellbeing variables (i.e., psychological distress, life satisfaction). Analyses revealed significant group differences in both wellbeing variables and one self-care domain, ps <.05. For wellbeing, students who were men, straight, or earning high incomes endorsed lower psychological distress than students who were women, sexual minorities, or earning low incomes, respectively. Additionally, life satisfaction was higher among students who were White and non-Hispanic, as well as students in the first year of their program, than among racial and/or ethnic minority students or more advanced students, respectively. For self-care, PsyD students and students with large cohorts endorsed higher engagement in cognitive self-care strategies than PhD students and students with small cohorts, respectively. These findings highlight the need for clinical psychology doctoral students and programs to address key disparities among students’ wellbeing and self-care. Making these important individual and program-wide changes for students still in training could facilitate better training outcomes (e.g., clinical competencies, client care, research progress) over the course of students’ professional careers. Due to limitations with cross-sectional studies, future researchers should conduct longitudinal studies with a diverse sample of students across multiple time points in their training and explore the impact of individual and program-wide changes on students’ wellbeing and self-care.