Investigating professional identity formation of postgraduate clinical psychology students

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Objective Little research has investigated professional identity in Australian clinical psychology postgraduate students. The current study examined potential predictors of professional identity for these students.Method Anonymous, self-report cross-sectional surveys for Australian postgraduate clinical psychology students were distributed via online survey links sent by their institution’s Program Director. Respondents reported professional identity, motivation, engagement, satisfaction with program, resilience, burnout, demographics, and enrolment type.Results Data from 77 respondents were analysed. Students reported an average 4.25/5 for sense of professional identity as a psychologist. Age, work experience, and stage of program were not associated with professional identity. In multivariate analyses, higher student satisfaction, lower burnout, and lower engagement with “student” aspects of postgraduate study were associated with stronger professional identity.Conclusions Levels of professional identity were relatively high and showed little influence of demographic variables. However, there is likely to be a reciprocal relationship between satisfaction with postgraduate study and professional identity for students, which would need to be evaluated in a different design to understand directions of association. Results also suggest that supporting postgraduate students in self-care and helping students to balance professional responsibilities and academic aspects of study are likely to assist in fostering postgraduates’ professional identity.