The Relationship Between Self-Care Behaviors and Depression and Anxiety Symptoms in School Psychology Graduate Students

Noting the popular psychology embrace of “self-care,” in this study, we sought to assess the relationship between self-care behaviors and symptoms of depression and anxiety in school psychology graduate students. Participants were recruited from the National Association of School Psychology (NASP) approved graduate training programs. A total of 318 school psychology graduate students at the master’s, specialist, and doctoral levels completed our survey. School psychology graduate students most frequently engage in psychological and relational self-care practices, like maintaining meaningful relationships and allowing themselves to be uncertain. They are least commonly engaging in spiritual self-care practices, such as attending religious services and advocacy work. We found significant relationships between engagement in self-care behaviors and decreased symptoms of depression and anxiety. The results of this study have implications for trainers of school psychology to model and teach self-care, and for school psychologists in training and in practice to engage in self-care behaviors.