Attachment anxiety, reflective functioning and well‐being as predictors of burn‐out and psychological distress among psychotherapists: A longitudinal study

Abstract

Objective This study aims to longitudinally investigate the effects of individual's factors on subsequent burn‐out/psychological distress in a sample of mental health practitioners, testing if higher attachment anxiety and avoidance and lower reflective functioning (i.e., certainty and uncertainty of mental states) and well‐being at baseline may lead to a greater psychological distress and burn‐out 1 year later. Methods The sample consisted of 40 experienced psychotherapists (females: 72.5%; mean age: 47.40 ± 9.48 years) who completed a battery of questionnaires at baseline and 1 year later. Statistical analyses were conducted with Bayesian multiple linear regressions. Results Greater attachment anxiety and certainty about mental states and lower individual's well‐being at baseline predicted greater burn‐out 1 year later. Similarly, greater attachment anxiety and lower individual's well‐being at baseline predicted psychological distress at 1 year follow‐up. Of note, uncertainty of mental states and avoidant attachment were not associated with outcomes. Conclusion These findings suggest that the levels of burn‐out and psychological distress among psychotherapists may be alleviated with interventions targeting attachment insecurity, specific aspects of reflective functioning (i.e., certainty about mental states) and well‐being.

Job Burnout Among the Helping Professions: The Roles of Childhood Maltreatment, Attachment Styles and Perceived Supervisor Support

“…First, avoidant attachment was not found to be directly related to job burnout (only via decreased perception of supervisor support). The finding is consistent with some previous studies, both cross-sectional and longitudinal ones, which failed to document relationships between avoidant attachment and job burnout (e.g., Brugnera et al 2023;Vîrgă et al 2019). Therefore, examining avoidant attachment on its own may not be sufficient to understand job burnout.…”

“…First, the relationships between each insecure attachment style and burnout have been inconsistent. Some studies have documented positive associations between burnout and both insecure attachment styles, avoidant and anxious (Hiebler-Ragger et al 2021;Littman-Ovadia, Oren, and Lavy 2013;Pines 2004;Pšeničny and Perat 2020;Ronen and Mikulincer 2009); others have found a significant relationship only between anxious attachment and burnout (e.g., Brugnera et al 2023;Leiter, Day, and Price 2015;Ronen and Baldwin 2010;Vîrgă et al 2019).…”

“…Second, little attention has been paid to the relationship between insecure attachment styles and burnout among helping professionals (e.g., Brugnera et al 2023;Hiebler-Ragger et al 2021), despite the highly demanding nature of their work and their relational vulnerability due to the childhood histories of many of them. Hence, this study aims to explore both avoidant and anxious attachment styles as possible mediators between CM and burnout among helping professionals.…”

“…Second, little attention has been paid to the relationship between insecure attachment styles and burnout among helping professionals (e.g., Brugnera et al. 2023; Hiebler‐Ragger et al. 2021), despite the highly demanding nature of their work and their relational vulnerability due to the childhood histories of many of them.…”

Do college students with higher attachment anxiety or avoidance tend to have lower subjective social status? Evidence from a cross‐sectional and a longitudinal study

“…Anxiously attached adults, due to their negative working models of self, are inclined to focus more on their own distress and draw mental resources away from other distressed persons (Brugnera et al, 2023). We speculated that these insensitive behavioral patterns could interfere with the formation of OSS (Chen, 2011) and thus may lead to lower SSS.…”