Examination of psychometric properties of self-care questionnaire in mental health professionals

This study was conducted among counselors and psychologists in Tehran, Iran, in 2021 aiming to examine the psychometric properties of self-care questionnaire for mental health professionals. In this respect, 316 mental health professionals were selected through convenient sampling to participate in the study and completed self-care and mental health questionnaires. Based on the good fit indices, the results of confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the five-factor model of the original version including professional support, professional development, work-life balance, cognitive strategies, and daily balance. The reliability obtained by Cronbach’s alpha for each of the aforementioned factors was 0.90, 0.89, 0.78, 0.76, and 0.80 and the reliability of the whole scale was 0.93. Furthermore, based on the Pearson correlation, the convergent validity of the dimensions of the self-care questionnaire and its total score was optimal in relation to the dimensions of the mental health questionnaire. Since the Persian version of the self-care questionnaire includes universal it emsbased on the foundations of self-care, it seems that it can be used for the evaluation of self-care in counselors and psychologists practicing in Iran.