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Anthony Primavera, Psy.D., is a 2022 graduate of the Psy.D. Program in Clinical Psychology at Antioch University, New England

Dissertation Committee:

  • Roger L. Peterson, PhD, Committee Chair
  • Alexander Blount, EdD, Committee Member
  • Barbara Belcher-Timme, PsyD, Committee Member

Keywords

Graduate psychology program, promotion of self-care culture, college students, interpretive phenomenological analysis

Document Type

Dissertation

Publication Date

2022

Abstract

Graduate psychology students face numerous stressors that can hinder their performance both academically and clinically as they move through their education and into the professional world (Pakenham & Stafford-Brown, 2012; Shen-Miller, 2011). Engagement with regular self-care not only can enhance a sense of well-being, but also plays a crucial role in shielding an individual from some of the most harmful effects of stress (Wise et al., 2012). Graduate level psychology programs are inherently positioned to teach graduate trainees about the importance of self-care practices and to help them develop self-care habits that they can take into future careers. It appears though, that these programs are often falling short in promoting self-care education and practices for their students, and students take notice of this (Bamonti et al., 2014; Munsey, 2006; Zahniser et al., 2017). The present qualitative dissertation study used an interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) based method. Graduate psychology students were interviewed and were administered the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) with the goal of learning about: (a) how they experience their graduate school’s promotion of self-care, and (b) how this may or may not interact with their comfort level in engaging with self-care activities, as well as their perceived stress levels (Cohen & Williamson, 2022).

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Anthony Primavera

ORCID Scholar ID# 0000-0003-1587-6550

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