Arts therapies students’ scores in profession-related variables: Quantitative results of a longitudinal study

Abstract

This longitudinal study investigated arts therapies students' (N ¼ 51) scores in the following variables: career commitment, professional identity, need for occupational and training information, and perceived environmental and personal barriers to career decision-making. Key results suggest that students' professional identity and career commitment significantly increased during training. Scores of dance movement therapy students, followed by art therapy students, were overall significantly higher than scores of drama therapy students. Students' need for occupational and training information as well as perceived environmental and personal barriers to career decision-making decreased. Policy and practice implications are suggested and recommendations for further research on this topic are offered.

The Applicability of a Seminal Professional Development Theory to Creative Arts Therapies Students

“…Despite this growing interest, the PD of creative arts therapies (CAT) students—who learn how to use the arts in counselling and psychotherapy—has scarcely been addressed. There have been a handful of empirical attempts to understand the PD of students trained in the different specializations, including art therapy (Feen‐Calligan, ), music therapy (Luce, ), dance movement therapy (Federman, ) and drama therapy (Orkibi, , , ). In light of this gap in the literature, the present study tested the extent to which CAT students confirm Rønnestad and Skovholt's () seminal theory of counsellors and therapists' PD as applicable to and representative of their own experience.…”

Linking collective self-esteem to well-being indicators of arts therapies students and practitioners: Meaning and engagement as mediators

“…Interestingly, in one study, older workers were slightly more likely to find positive meaning in their work (Steger et al, 2012); this is reasonable given findings that professional identity typically increases with time (Orkibi, 2012b), and, as suggested above, having a clear sense of identity is positively correlated with the perception of work as meaningful.…”

“…A major, albeit unexpected, finding was that students reported significantly higher professional CSE than practitioners, reflecting higher feelings of self-worth derived from their sense of collective professional identity. Given the emerging nature of students' professional identity (Orkibi, 2010(Orkibi, , 2012b(Orkibi, , 2013, we expected students to report lower CSE than established practitioners, who were expected to report comparatively higher CSE.…”

“…It has been documented that arts therapies students, especially in the first year, tend to lack realworld knowledge about the profession (Orkibi, 2010(Orkibi, , 2012a, such as market saturation, limited vacant positions, wage level and status issues, to name a few. From a cognitive perspective, it is also possible that the students' high CSE could stem from a self-serving cognitive bias that serves the need to maintain and enhance self-esteem (Shepperd, Malone, & Sweeny, 2008); in this case, it would reflect a need to defend their professional choice and ratify their emerging professional identity, which is likely not to be intentional and possibly not even conscious (Shepperd et al, 2008).…”

“…Based on self-enhancement theory (Jones, 1973) and conservation of resources theory (Hobfoll, 2011), it could be argued that student CSE generates the self-enhancing resource of work engagement, but not meaningful work. This is possibly because the evolving professional identity of students (Orkibi, 2012b(Orkibi, , 2012c(Orkibi, , 2012d is closely connected to their still evolving ability to make sense of their training process (Ignelzi, 2000;Kegan, 1982, p. 11).…”