Quality of clinical supervision and counselor emotional exhaustion: The potential mediating roles of organizational and occupational commitment

Hannah K. Knudsen, Paul M. Roman, Amanda J. Abraham

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

31 Scopus citations

Abstract

Counselor emotional exhaustion has negative implications for treatment organizations as well as the health of counselors. Quality clinical supervision is protective against emotional exhaustion, but research on the mediating mechanisms between supervision and exhaustion is limited. Drawing upon data from 934 counselors affiliated with treatment programs in the National Institute on Drug Abuse's Clinical Trials Network (CTN), this study examined commitment to the treatment organization and commitment to the counseling occupation as potential mediators of the relationship between quality clinical supervision and emotional exhaustion. The final ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model, which accounted for the nesting of counselors within treatment organizations, indicated that these two types of commitment were plausible mediators of the association between clinical supervision and exhaustion. Higher quality clinical supervision was strongly correlated with commitment to the treatment organization as well as commitment to the occupation of SUD counseling. These findings suggest that quality clinical supervision has the potential to yield important benefits for counselor well-being by strengthening ties to both their employing organization as well the larger treatment field, but longitudinal research is needed to establish these causal relationships.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)528-533
Number of pages6
JournalJournal of Substance Abuse Treatment
Volume44
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2013

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors gratefully acknowledge research support from the National Institute on Drug Abuse ( R01DA14482 ). The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent the official position of the funding agency.

Keywords

  • Burnout
  • Emotional exhaustion
  • Occupational commitment
  • Organizational commitment
  • Treatment workforce

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Psychiatric Mental Health
  • Medicine (miscellaneous)
  • Clinical Psychology
  • Psychiatry and Mental health

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