Relationship between self-compassion, sense of coherence, coping strategies and perceived stress in clinical psychology trainees.

Individuals employed in the helping professions are vulnerable to occupational stress and burnout due to the physical and emotional challenges inherent in the work. A large body of research has focused on organisational, occupational, and demographic factors associated with these negative costs of caring. This thesis explored the influence of psychological factors on stress and burnout in formal caregivers.
Paper 1 (the literature review) examined the existing evidence base in order to determine whether burnout and compassion fatigue are associated with sense of coherence in health and social care workers. Sense of coherence relates to the extent to which a person perceives stressful life events as comprehensible, manageable and meaningful. Fourteen studies met the inclusion criteria. The findings revealed that stronger sense of coherence was consistently associated with lower levels of burnout and compassion fatigue and influenced these negative outcomes both directly and indirectly. However, methodological limitations across studies indicated that these findings should be interpreted with caution.
Paper 2 describes an empirical study that examined associations between sense of coherence, self-compassion, coping strategies, and perceived stress in clinical psychology trainees. Findings indicated that higher levels of self-compassion and sense of coherence were both associated with lower stress. Results also indicated that self-compassion was positively associated with adaptive coping strategies, and both self-compassion and sense of coherence were negatively associated with avoidance-oriented strategies. Sense of coherence and maladaptive coping emerged as significant predictors of perceived stress in subsequent regression analyses. Findings suggest that interventions or support mechanisms that enhance sense of coherence and reduce reliance on maladaptive
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coping may decrease vulnerability to stress in clinical psychology trainees. Paper three provides a first person reflective account of the process of completing this thesis, and its impact on the personal and professional development of the author.