Self-Care Effects On Anxiety In Doctoral Students

Ashlee Brooke Orozco, Fielding's School of Psychology

This study investigated the effects of self-care practices on anxiety in doctoral students. The Burns Anxiety Inventory (Burns, 1999) was used to measure feelings, thoughts, and physical symptoms associated with anxiety. The Self-Care Assessment Worksheet (Saakvitne & Pearlman, 1996) was used to examine the self-care activities frequently practiced by doctoral students, including physical, psychological, emotional, spiritual, and professional activities. Lower self-care scores were expected to be associated with higher anxiety scores. In addition, physical self-care subscale scores were expected to explain significantly more of the variance in anxiety scores than the other self-care subscales. Participants (N= 161) were recruited through Fielding Graduate University’s communication system and asked to complete a survey on their self-care practices and their anxiety levels. A simple linear regression was conducted and the findings suggest that the self-care scores contributed to the variance in anxiety scores. A multiple linear regression was conducted to examine the relationship of the five SCAW subscales and the total score on the Burns Anxiety Inventory. As expected, physical self-care subscale scores explained significantly more of the variance on the total scores of the Burns Anxiety Inventory than the other self-care subscales. However, psychological, emotional, and workplace or professional self-care subscales also contributed significantly to the variance and therefore, may also be useful predictors.

Keywords: self-care, anxiety