The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on self-efficacy in Assistant Psychologists in the UK

Abstract

A novel coronavirus (Covid-19) was discovered in December 2019 (WHO, 2020). This meant changes in working for psychological staff, such as increased remote working, wearing of personal protective equipment (PPE), and taking on different tasks out of their job remit (Coetzer & Bichard, 2020). The potential for Assistant Psychologists (APs) to work in unfamiliar areas raised concerns regarding their self-efficacy. The present study investigated general levels of self-efficacy within APs during Covid-19, and whether it affected specific job roles (BPS, 2020a).A novel survey with 15 items relating to self-efficacy was completed online by 124 Assistant Psychologists via a self-selected sample.There were 87 participants (70 per cent) who remained in their usual role and 37 (30 per cent) deployed into other roles with a psychological focus. Overall, self-efficacy reduced across groups, as well as an individual tasks such as completing psychological assessments, delivering prescribed short-term interventions, and facilitating groups (p = <.005). Neither group reported significant changes in their self-efficacy for engaging in research, audit, or service evaluation, or creating training resources (p = >.05). APs who were deployed had a significant reduction in self-efficacy for facilitating reflective spaces (p = .005) but those who continued in their usual role did not (p = .341).Self-efficacy for direct clinical work (e.g. interventions) was negatively affected by Covid-19 in APs, whereas indirect clinical work (e.g. research/audit/service evaluation) was not. This suggests that supervisors of APs should be aware that self-efficacy is likely to decrease concerning future waves of Covid-19, regardless of being deployed or not.