Self-Care Strategies and Job-Crafting Practices Among Behavior Analysts: Do They Predict Perceptions of Work–Life Balance, Work Engagement, and Burnout?
Self-care and job-crafting are DIY shields against BCBA burnout.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Slowiak et al. (2022) sent an online survey to 826 practicing behavior analysts.
They asked how often people use self-care moves like exercise, breaks, or hobbies.
They also asked about job-crafting: tweaking tasks, relationships, and mindset to fit you better.
What they found
More self-care and job-crafting meant better work-life balance and higher work joy.
The same habits also cut burnout scores.
In short, small daily choices protect you from flaming out.
How this fits with other research
Dounavi et al. (2019) saw heavy pre-cert caseloads spark burnout even when supervision felt good.
Slowiak shows you can fight back after credentialing with your own habits, not just better bosses.
Johnson et al. (2009) found supervisor support lowers burnout; Slowiak adds that you can create similar relief yourself without waiting for support.
Barton et al. (2019) taught mindfulness to direct-support staff and kept them on the job.
Slowiak widens the toolkit: self-care plus job-crafting works for credentialed BCBAs too.
Why it matters
You can’t always lighten your caseload or change your boss today.
You can pick one self-care action and one job-craft tweak this week.
Stack tiny wins: block lunch walks, swap tasks with a peer, or reframe a report as skill-building.
Your burnout score drops and your engagement rises—no extra paperwork required.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Applied behavior analysis (ABA) practitioners report high levels of burnout, exhibited as exhaustion and disengagement. Turnover, a stressful and costly experience for individual practitioners and the human service organizations that employ them, is a potential consequence of burnout. Work–life balance and work engagement are associated with lower burnout and lower intention to quit. Research concerning behavioral predictors of work–life balance, work engagement, and burnout—all of which are associated with turnover intentions—among ABA service providers is scant. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to explore whether and how the use of self-care strategies and job-crafting practices influences perceived levels of work–life balance, work engagement, and burnout among ABA practitioners who work in human service settings. In a sample of 826 ABA practitioners, 72% reported medium to high levels of burnout. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that the use of both self-care strategies and job-crafting practices strongly predicted work–life balance, work engagement, and burnout above and beyond sociodemographic variables (gender and years of experience). Findings can inform the development of effective organizational/systems- and individual-level self-care and job-crafting interventions that support sustainable individual, organizational, and client-related outcomes. We contend that self-care and job-crafting interventions support a culture of well-being in graduate programs, training/supervision curricula, and mentor–mentee relationships.
Behavior Analysis in Practice, 2022 · doi:10.1007/s40617-021-00570-y