The Protective Role of Self-Compassion in the Relationship between Perfectionism and Burnout in Portuguese Medicine and Dentistry Students

• Autor(a) principal: Pereira, Ana Telma
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Outros Autores: Brito, Maria João, Cabaços, Carolina, Carneiro, Mário, Carvalho, Frederica, Manão, Andreia, Araújo, Ana, Pereira, Daniela, Macedo, António
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10316/103308; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19052740
• topic: perfectionism; self-compassion; burnout; medical students; Burnout, Psychological; Dentistry; Humans; Portugal; Self-Compassion; Burnout, Professional; Perfectionism; Students, Medical

Recent studies have documented the high prevalence of burnout among medicine and dentistry students, with potentially catastrophic consequences for both students and patients. Both environmental and personality factors play a part in burnout; perfectionism, a common trait in medicine students' personalities, has been linked to psychological distress and increasing students' vulnerability to burnout. Self-compassion, i.e., treating oneself kindly through hardship, has recently emerged as a buffer between perfectionism and psychological distress. While using a novel three-factor conceptualization of perfectionism (BIG3), this study aims to analyze if self-compassion has a protective role in the relationship between perfectionism and burnout, in a sample of medicine and dentistry students, through mediation analysis. We found that self-compassion significantly mediated the relationship between all three forms of perfectionism and burnout: as a partial mediator in self-critical and rigid perfectionism, as well as a full mediator in narcissistic perfectionism. Our findings underline self-compassion's relevance in burnout prevention and management, supporting its use as an intervention target in burnout reduction programs and strategies.