Exploring the relationships among art therapy students’ burnout, practicum stress, and teacher support

Abstract

IntroductionThis study examines how teacher support and practicum stress affect art therapy graduate students’ burnout.MethodsA total of 125 master’s and doctoral students from art therapy graduate schools in Korea participated in the study. We conducted a correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis to explore the relationship between the variables.ResultsThe correlation analysis results showed that burnout, practicum stress, and social support are significantly interrelated. The regression analysis results indicated that practicum stress increases burnout while social support decreases it. When we used the sub-factors of social support as independent variables, we found that professor support rather than the support of colleagues or family significantly reduced burnout. When we divided the perceived teacher support into emotional support and academic support, our analysis identified that academic support was more important than emotional support to reduce students’ burnout.ConclusionArt therapy students’ practicum stress can cause psychological burnout, while teacher support—especially academic support—can lower the possibility of experiencing such burnout.