1. Assessing The "Millennial Self-Care Obsession" Among Social Workers: #NotSoMuch.
- Author
-
Miller, J Jay and Grise-Owens, Erlene
- Subjects
- *
STATISTICS , *SOCIAL support , *PSYCHOLOGY of social workers , *PROFESSIONAL employee training , *CROSS-sectional method , *COGNITION , *DESCRIPTIVE statistics , *ANALYSIS of covariance , *CHI-squared test , *DATA analysis , *HEALTH self-care , *OBSESSIVE-compulsive disorder - Abstract
Summary: Despite the importance of self-care to social work practice, misnomers about the construct persist. One misperception is that millennials are overly focused on self-care and engage in high-levels of self-care, to the detriment of performing work duties. This study examined the self-care practices of social work practitioners (N = 3079) in the United States. Researcher investigated self-care practices across five domains: Professional Support, Professional Development, Life Support, Cognitive Awareness, and Daily Balance. Findings: Overall, data suggest that social workers in all generations engaged in moderate amounts of self-care. Analyses revealed that millennials engaged in significantly fewer self-care practices related to Professional Support and Daily Balance, when compared to Generation X and Baby-boomer participants. While not statistically significant, millennials scored lower across all other self-care domains. Applications: This is the first known study to explicitly investigate generational differences in self-care within any professional discipline. Within the next five years, millennials will make up nearly 75% of the world's workforce. Findings from this research suggest the need to reshape prevailing anecdotes about self-care and millennials. Further, data offer insights to organizations looking to better support social workers of all generations in engaging in self-care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2021
- Full Text
- View/download PDF