Self-Care Strategies and Job-Crafting Practices Among Behavior Analysts: Do They Predict Perceptions of Work–Life Balance, Work Engagement, and Burnout?

Applied behavior analysis (ABA) practitioners report high levels of burnout, exhibited as exhaustion and disengagement. Turnover, a stressful and costly experience for individual practitioners and the human service organizations that employ them, is a potential consequence of burnout. Work–life balance and work engagement are associated with lower burnout and lower intention to quit. Research concerning behavioral predictors of work–life balance, work engagement, and burnout—all of which are associated with turnover intentions—among ABA service providers is scant. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to explore whether and how the use of self-care strategies and job-crafting practices influences perceived levels of work–life balance, work engagement, and burnout among ABA practitioners who work in human service settings. In a sample of 826 ABA practitioners, 72% reported medium to high levels of burnout. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that the use of both self-care strategies and job-crafting practices strongly predicted work–life balance, work engagement, and burnout above and beyond sociodemographic variables (gender and years of experience). Findings can inform the development of effective organizational/systems- and individual-level self-care and job-crafting interventions that support sustainable individual, organizational, and client-related outcomes. We contend that self-care and job-crafting interventions support a culture of well-being in graduate programs, training/supervision curricula, and mentor–mentee relationships.