BU Research Blog

A paper titled, ‘Individual factors in the relationship between stress and resilience in mental health psychology practitioners during the COVID-19 pandemic” is now published in Journal of Health Psychology and is available at https://doi.org/10.1177/13591053211059393.

This paper is an outcome of a QR funded project that was conducted by Dr Constantina Panourgia, Dr Agata Wezyk and Dr Ala Yankouskaya from the Department of Psychology in collaboration with academics from University of West London (Dr Annita Ventouris) and Catholic University of Lyon (Dr Amanda Comoretto) and a former BU MSc student (Miss Zoe Taylor).

This  paper explores the concurrent effects of pre-pandemic and COVID-19 stress on resilience in Mental Health Psychology Practitioners focussing on the mediation effects of specific individual factors. Optimism, burnout and secondary traumatic stress, but not coping strategies, self-efficacy, compassion satisfaction, or self-compassion, mediated both the relationship between pre-pandemic stress and resilience and COVID-19 stress and resilience. These findings may be explained by the increased workload caused by the pandemic, and the nature and duration of COVID-19. Very importantly, they address the role of training and supervision practices that allow Mental Health Psychology Practitioners to reflect on their capacity to deal with their job demands under circumstances of general and extreme stress and to identify early signs of burnout and secondary traumatic stress.

The research team plans to extend the above findings by examining the long-term effects of vicarious traumatisation on this group of professionals currently performing their duties in this complex historical moment.