Aktiv und zufrieden? Körperliche Aktivität und berufsbezogene Lebensqualität bei Psycholog:innen

BACKGROUND: Clinical psychologists are often exposed to numerous stressors in their work with people with mental disorders, which can resonate in psychological stress and a reduced quality of life. Physical activity could be a protective resource but there is a lack of empirical evidence in this respect. METHODS: In a cross-sectional online survey via SoSci-Survey (January–April 2020), physical activity as well as occupation-related quality of life (positive dimension: compassion satisfaction, negative dimension: compassion fatigue) were assessed in a convenience sample of 443 clinical psychologists using established self-report questionnaires (international physical activity questionnaire-short form, IPAQ-SF; professional quality of life scale, ProQOL). RESULTS: The majority of the psychologists surveyed met the minimum level of physical activity recommended by the World Health Organization. On average, compassion satisfaction was relatively high, whereas relatively low to moderate levels of burnout symptoms and secondary traumatic stress (facets of compassion fatigue) were reported. Except for scattered small negative correlations between physical inactivity and compassion satisfaction among psychotherapists in training as well as burnout symptoms and overall physical activity among psychological psychotherapists, no associations between physical activity and profession-related quality of life were evident. CONCLUSION: Psychologists mostly seem to represent a physically active profession with a tendentially high occupation-related quality of life. In this context, associations between physical activity and quality of life could be partly hidden by ceiling effects. In addition, an analysis of the reasons for these adaptive characteristics in activity and professional quality of life could provide clues for supportive measures for other professions.