A pilot study evaluating the factors associated with psychological distress of clinical psychologists in Kagawa Prefecture, Japan

Abstract

We investigated the psychological distress of clinical psychologists in Kagawa Prefecture, Japan using a 6-item instrument (the K6). A total of 83 clinical psychologists (13 men and 70 women) were analyzed in this cross-sectional investigation study. e association between psychological distress and clinical factors was evaluated by using the K6 instrument. e results showed that a total of 6 clinical psychologists (7.2) were classi ed as having high psychological distress. A weak relationship between K6 score and age was noted. However, relationships between K6 score and sex, duration of experience as a clinical psychologist, clinical eld, and other certi cations were not observed. Anxiety about preventing suicide was closely associated with K6 score. e psychological distress of clinical psychologists was not very high. Receiving supervision and participation in a case study were expected to be associated with reducing distress; however, we did not observe such results.