Wellness as an Ethical Mandate: Examining the Mental Health, Stress, and Self-Care Practices of School Psychology Graduate Students

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Previous literature has found that psychology graduate students experience clinically significant rates of mental health problems. Self-care practices at the individual and program level may help to mitigate these outcomes and benefit student wellbeing. However, minimal research exists about the mental health and self-care practices of school psychology graduate students. The current study examined prevalence rates of anxiety, depression, and stress in a sample of school psychology students (N = 202) as well as self-care utilization and perceptions of programmatic self-care emphasis. Results indicated that most participants reported clinically significant rates of stress, depression, and/or anxiety. In contrast to prior findings, participants who identified with minoritized identities did not report significantly different rates of mental health outcomes. Correlational analyses revealed significant negative relationships between participants' self-care utilization and mental health outcomes, and between perceived programmatic emphasis on self-care and participants' mental health outcomes. Coding of open-ended survey responses identified barriers to and facilitators of participants' self-care and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on participants' mental health. Findings highlight that school psychology students face significant threats to their mental health throughout training and indicate that encouraging self-care practices may support student wellbeing. Implications for training and future research are discussed.