| The psychological well-being of mental health providers has been of increasing concern. Previous research documented high levels of depression among mental health professionals (Mausner & Steppacher, 1973; Deutsch, 1985; Mahoney, 1997; O'Conner, 2001), as well as higher rates of depression and emotional difficulties among certain subgroups of graduate psychology students (Holzman, Searight & Hughes, 1996; Wesley, 2000; Brooks, Holttum & Lavender, 2002; Kuyken, Peters, Power, Lavender & Rabe-Hesketh, 2000). The current study, of 153 psychology undergraduates in upper division courses, found that psychology undergraduates who intended to pursue direct service careers in mental health were no more likely to report depression or maladaptive perfectionism than their peers who intended to pursue unrelated careers. This suggests that the factors that lead to elevated rates of depression among mental health professionals occur at later stages in professional development, and may not be a result of more impaired or fragile students being disproportionately attracted to careers in mental health. In addition, the relationships between depression, depression-proneness, and adaptive and maladaptive forms of perfectionism were explored in this sample. |
