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Australian Journal of Psychology logoLink to Australian Journal of Psychology
. 2026 Jun 25;78(1):2691729. doi: 10.1080/00049530.2026.2691729

Supporting psychology interns where it matters: how supervision quality, financial strain, and internship satisfaction shape self-perceived competence

Josephine Paparo a,✉, Elizabeth Pizarro-Campagna b
PMCID: PMC13307384  PMID: 42368679

ABSTRACT

Objective

Psychology internships are the bedrock of training for psychologists. However, little is known from the perspective of psychology interns regarding how internship experiences shape outcomes. This study aimed to investigate the dynamic interplay between internship-related factors, overall internship satisfaction, and perceived professional competence for psychology interns.

Method

Participants (N = 122) completing or having completed a psychology internship via the 5 + 1 internship pathway to registration as a psychologist in Australia undertook an online questionnaire.

Results

Participants who perceived internship providers as prioritising their learning needs over the needs of the service/business reported greater internship satisfaction. Supervision quality was also related to internship satisfaction. This was especially the case for those reporting financial strain. An iterative data analytic process revealed that for current interns only, a positive link between supervision quality and perceived sense of professional competence was fully mediated by internship satisfaction, and was strongest for those experiencing financial strain.

Conclusions

Collectively, these findings highlight the protective role good quality supervision and internship programs can play in supporting psychology interns, including those from potentially vulnerable subgroups, and presents a call to action for improved education, training, and accountability for internship providers to safeguard the future of the psychology workforce.

KEYWORDS: Psychology internships, psychology training, internship satisfaction, perceived sense of professional competence, supervision quality

KEY POINTS

What is already known about this topic:

  1. One-year psychology internships are a cornerstone of psychology training and registration across many jurisdictions, including Australia.

  2. Little is currently known regarding the factors contributing to positive internship outcomes for psychology trainees, despite the implications this has for workforce stability, as well as the health, wellbeing and professional development of early career psychologists.

  3. The lived experiences of psychology interns are particularly critical for assuring the long-term sustainability and strength of the Australian mental health workforce.

What this topic adds:

  1. Prioritising the learning needs of psychology interns over the needs of the service/business, as well as good quality supervision, engenders internship satisfaction among psychology interns.

  2. Financial strain while on internship appears to accentuate the importance of quality supervision for a satisfying internship experience.

  3. For those currently completing their internship, the relationship between supervision quality and self-perceived professional competence can be explained by internship satisfaction.

Psychology internships are a critical part of the training journey to becoming an accredited psychology practitioner across many jurisdictions, including Australia; imbuing would-be psychologists with real-life work experience that can bridge the theory-practice gap commonly seen after tertiary-level education and training (Mangione et al., 2006; Palitsky et al., 2022), while also ensuring sufficient safeguards for the public are in place when receiving services from novice therapists (Parent et al., 2016; Stedman, 1997). Despite this, very little is known from the perspective of the psychology intern as to how these internships are regarded (Callahan & Love, 2020; Monahan et al., 2025). Recent data highlights concerning levels of dissatisfaction with psychology internships among psychology interns, which may in turn contribute to practitioner attrition (Pizarro-Campagna & Paparo, 2025). Cultivating an understanding of lived experiences of the internship is thus vital for informing future workforce planning, enabling the identification of factors that may mitigate the risk of attrition, and with it, the critical health workforce shortages facing many health and allied health professions (J. Tan et al., 2025).

The psychology internship

In Australia, those currently wishing to become an accredited psychologist must complete an Australian Psychology Accreditation Council endorsed Master’s level postgraduate psychology degree program, following the completion of an accredited undergraduate four-year sequence in psychology (typically, a Bachelor’s degree with honours or fourth-year equivalent; Australian Psychological Society, n.d.). Training at the postgraduate level may consist of either a two-year degree combining professional and specialist competencies (i.e., the “higher degree” pathway), or a one-year degree focusing on professional competencies, followed by a one-year 1500-hour supervised psychology internship (i.e., the “5 + 1 internship pathway”). The “+1” component of the 5 + 1 internship pathway to psychology registration refers to this single year of supervised practice (i.e., “the internship”; Psychology Board of Australia, 2025) and was the focus of this study.

Across most jurisdictions, including the United States (American Psychological Association, 2026), Canada (Canadian Psychological Association, n.d.), Europe (European Federation of Psychologists’ Associations, 2025), and South Africa (Health Professions Council of South Africa, 2024), one-year psychology internships are a formative part of the training sequence for professional psychologists. Often regarded a capstone training requirement, these internships serve important “gatekeeping” functions for the profession, and hence, form part of the requirements for licensure. Building a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the diverse factors driving psychology internship satisfaction is vital, not only to assure workforce stability, but also the health, wellbeing, and professional development of interns, and thus constitutes an important priority for the international psychology training community.

Factors influencing internship satisfaction

Despite the ubiquity of mandatory one-year psychology internship training programs, virtually absent from the literature is the investigation of factors that contribute to internship satisfaction from the perspective of the trainee. A recent paper by L. N. Tan and Tiangco (2025) offers a useful framework for conceptualising such issues through the lens of “psychological contracts” and “psychological contract breach”. Drawing on the field of industrial/organisational psychology, the authors propose that between an intern and internship provider exists a series of intrapsychic expectations or schemas as to what an intern understands they owe a supervisor, and what they can expect in return (i.e., the “psychological contract”; Rousseau, 1989). A “psychological contract breach” occurs when an intern perceives the internship provider as having failed to meet one or more of these obligations (c.f., Johnson & O’Leary-Kelly, 2003). It thus stands to reason that the perceived failure of providers to meet intern expectations may contribute to internship dissatisfaction for the psychology trainee.

In the context of likely having accumulated a large student debt, as well as growing economic hardship due to the rising cost of living, a primary expectation of the psychology intern might be a stipend or salary sufficient to meet their daily living expenses. Research across jurisdictions suggests that, for most psychology interns, remuneration tends to be grossly outstripped by essential personal expenses, with many earning well below the average or minimum local living wage (Hood et al., 2024; Pizarro-Campagna & Paparo, 2025; Van Niekerk et al., 2024). Student and early career psychologists have also been found to endorse higher rates of financial distress than more experienced psychologists, with greater reported impacts on not only their personal, but also professional lives (Wilcox et al., 2021). The degree to which the psychology internship meets the financial needs of those enrolled in these pathways may therefore influence levels of internship satisfaction experienced by trainees. Since financial strain is considered a primary stressor for the graduate psychology student and intern (Gee et al., 2022), insufficient financial compensation may further serve to colour the perspective of interns regarding other aspects of the internship also influencing overall internship satisfaction, perhaps leading the impoverished trainee to wonder, is it worth it? (Aafjes van Doorn & Barber, 2023).

High-quality supervision is considered essential to the development of trainee professional competence (Monahan et al., 2025; Van Niekerk et al., 2024). Although conceptualisations of supervision quality in psychology vary substantially, Ellis et al. (2014) provide a useful framework for understanding supervision standards that builds on their earlier work (Ellis, 2001), distinguishing between “harmful supervision” (i.e., supervisory practices resulting in psychological, emotional, and/or physical harm or trauma to the supervisee) and “inadequate supervision” (i.e., supervisory practices that fail to enhance, monitor, and assess, professional functioning, in departure from minimally adequate standards). Prior studies have shown characteristics such as enhanced supervisory effectiveness and sensitivity, as well as supervisor experience, skills and expertise, alongside the ability to cultivate a positive working alliance, to be associated with increased job satisfaction among health professionals (Livni et al., 2012; Martin et al., 2021). These factors also contribute to perceptions that supervisors have met the needs of interns (Eisenhard & Muse-Burke, 2015). Effective supervision may thus constitute another reasonable expectancy in the “psychological contract” that exists between the psychology trainee and internship provider, thereby contributing to internship satisfaction for the psychology intern.

The American Psychological Association (2026) stipulates that training considerations during psychology internships should “take precedence over service delivery and revenue generation”. In Australia, a sizeable proportion of internship opportunities are offered by private practice providers (Pizarro-Campagna & Paparo, 2025). While it is undeniable that these settings offer a wide variety of training experiences for the intern, increasingly valued across jurisdictions (Pillay & Johnston, 2011; Stedman, 1997), such models are fraught with complexity due to their primary operation as businesses directly linked to the personal livelihood of the practice director (also often, the internship supervisor). It is not inconceivable that mismatched expectations between the intern and internship provider may arise within this dynamic, with some providers perceived as being less invested in the learning and training trajectories of interns, compared to revenue generation. This may leave the trainee open to exploitation, caught in the tension between service-versus-training priorities for internship providers (Palitsky et al., 2022). Such themes have been found to have a profoundly deleterious impact on satisfaction with supervision (Nelson & Friedlander, 2001) that may extend to the overall internship experience.

Does internship satisfaction matter? Implications for perceived competency

The belief in one’s competence to perform counselling-related behaviours and negotiate clinical situations has a significant impact on the clinical functioning of trainees, affording a causal link between knowing what to do and executing the action (Larson, 1998; Larson & Daniels, 1998). Self-perceptions of professional competency are thus deeply interwoven in the experience of the psychology intern as they continue the journey towards closure of the theory-practice gap that comes with prior training. Indeed, higher self-efficacy has been found to be associated with a host of positive outcomes for counsellors (Kozina et al., 2010; Watt et al., 2019). Fostering meaningful understanding of the factors that contribute to the development of self-perceived competence for psychology interns is thus imperative in supporting the transition from student-clinician to novice practitioner.

While studies investigating perceived sense of professional competence among psychology practitioners are limited, it would seem self-evident that if the purpose of psychology training is to imbue interns with the knowledge and skills to confidently, safely and effectively engage in independent psychological practice, deficient training experiences might interfere with this process. This aligns with the view that perceptions of the working environment likely bear some relationship with counsellor self-efficacy (Larson & Daniels, 1998). Prior research additionally indicates that supervision quality (e.g., Arifin et al., 2003) and perceived investment in trainees (e.g., Nelson & Friedlander, 2001) can independently contribute to cultures of self-doubt among counsellors and psychology trainees. Synergisms with overall internship satisfaction may also exist. These environmental impacts may be especially heightened for those temporally closer to the internship experience, with fewer post-training experiences to offset these influences.

Present study

The primary aim of the current study was to investigate internship-related factors contributing to psychology internship satisfaction. More specifically, whether the financial situation of psychology interns while undertaking their internship, as well as two aspects of the internship experience itself (quality of supervisory experience and the degree to which learning was prioritised over the interests of the service/business), contributed to internship satisfaction was of interest. Controlling for reported annual income during the internship and internship completion status, it was hypothesised that internship satisfaction would be greatest among those reporting less financial strain, who perceived their place of employment as more strongly prioritising their learning over the interests of the service/ business, and provided higher ratings of supervision quality. Financial strain was also expected to accentuate the positive impacts of aspects of the internship experience on internship satisfaction. It was further anticipated that these relationships would be weaker for those who had completed their internships, versus current interns, and thus somewhat removed from the immediate impact of their internship experience (i.e., the “rosy retrospection” effect1; Mitchell et al., 1997).

A secondary aim of the study was to examine how aspects of psychology internships impacted current perceptions of professional competence for participants at different stages of their training journey (i.e., current versus completed interns). It was hypothesised that more favourable reports of the internship experience (supervision quality and the prioritisation of learning), as well as greater overall internship satisfaction, would have a positive impact on current perceived sense of professional competence, but only for those currently completing their internship and thus more contemporaneously vulnerable to these influences.

Finally, whether a more complex and dynamic interplay between these variables existed, including a possible mechanistic relationship between aspects of psychology internships, overall internship satisfaction, and perceived sense of professional competence was explored. It was envisaged that by identifying pathways to perceived competence through an iterative data analytic process that considered the incremental contribution of target variables to both internship satisfaction and sense of professional competency a more comprehensive understanding of factors contributing to felt-competence would be yielded, leading to the identification of elements that could ultimately be leveraged in building a stronger psychology workforce.

Method

Participants

This study was part of a broader project examining the experiences of Australian psychology interns (e.g., Pizarro-Campagna & Paparo, 2025). Included participants (N = 122) were either currently completing (n = 56) or had previously completed (n = 66) the 1500-hour psychology internship required following postgraduate training (i.e., the 5 + 1 pathway to registration as a psychologist in Australia; Psychology Board of Australia, 2025). Participant age ranged from 24 to 66 years (M = 39.42, SD = 11.64) and the average age at which participants began their internships was 37.11 (SD = 11.53). Most participants identified as women (n = 100, 82%), with 18 identifying as men, three as non-binary, and one participant preferring not to report their gender. Almost two-thirds of participants described their ethnicity as Anglo-Australian (64%). European was the next most prominently endorsed single ethnic background (11%), followed by Asian/South-East Asian (6%), though a relatively sizeable proportion of participants also identified as from more than one ethnic group (7%). All other ethnicities reported very low levels of representation (3% or less), including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander respondents, who comprised only 2% of the sample.

Power analyses were conducted in G*Power Version 3.1.9.7 (Faul et al., 2009) to determine recommended sample sizes for the planned hierarchical analyses. The results indicated that an estimated 99 to 116 participants were desirable. The final sample exceeded these requirements. It is worth noting guidelines for sample sizes for moderated mediation analyses are generally not recommended owing to multi-factorial influences (Calantone et al., 2017).

Measures

Internship income

Participants were asked if their internship was paid, and if so, to estimate their gross annual internship income (in AUD) by indicating the most representative band: “Less than $40,000”, “$40,000–$49,999”; “$50,000-$59,999”; “$60,000-$69,999”; “$70,000–79,999”; “$80,000-$89,999”; “$90,000-$99,999”; “$100,000-$149,999”; “$150,000 or more”, “unsure”, or “prefer not to say”. A single participant reported their internship to be unpaid; as such they were regarded as an outlier and their data point treated as missing. Selected by two participants, “unsure” or “prefer not to say” responses were also treated as missing data.

Financial situation during internship

Financial situation during the internship was assessed using an adapted single-item epidemiological measure (Okechukwu et al., 2012), which asked participants, “How would you describe your money/financial situation during your internship?” Participants selected one of four options. In line with Okechukwu et al. (2012), these were re-coded into a dichotomous variable, categorising participants into those who did not experience financial strain (“comfortable with extra” or “enough but no extra” responses), and those who experienced financial strain (“had to cut back” or “could not make ends meet” responses).

Learning prioritisation

Using a single item adapted from previous research (Palitsky et al., 2022), participants were asked to rate on a 5-point scale whether their place of employment prioritised their learning and training over the interests of the service/business). Lower scores indicated that the internship employer did not prioritise interns’ learning over service/business interests and higher scores indicated that the internship employer did prioritise interns’ learning over the interests of the service/business.

Supervision quality

The Supervisory Satisfaction Questionnaire indexes supervision quality as perceived by supervisees (Ladany et al., 1996). It is an eight-item measure with lower scores indicating poorer supervision quality and higher scores indicating greater supervision quality. Originally rated on a 4-point scale, an adapted 7-point Likert scale (Cooperstone, 2023) was used in this study. The total score was calculated by adding item responses, with the total score ranging from 7 to 56. Internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha) for the adapted scale has been reported as excellent (∝ = .92; Cooperstone, 2023), and similar to the original measure (∝ = .96), which captures a single supervision quality factor (Ladany et al., 1996). In the current study, the internal reliability of the scale was also very high (∝ = .97).

Internship satisfaction

Internship satisfaction was assessed using a single-item adapted from the job satisfaction literature (Hoff et al., 2020) and answered on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = very dissatisfied to 5 = very satisfied) that asked participants “How satisfied are/were you, in general, with your internship?”.

Sense of professional competence

The 10-item Professional Competence Scale (Taylor & Neimeyer, 2022) was used to assess interns’ perceptions of their own competence across a broad skillset and knowledge base. It is measured on a 5-point scale and a total score is calculated by adding the item scores, with higher scores indicative of a greater sense of professional competence. The developers of the tool (Taylor & Neimeyer, 2022) reported the reliability across different samples to be acceptable (r = .57 - .85) and convergent validity was noted as promising (r = .11 - .73). In the current study, the internal consistency of the measure was good (∝ = .74).

Procedure

Ethics approval was granted by the Australian Catholic University Human Research Ethics Committee Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC No. 2024–3653SAP). The study was advertised through professional networks and associations, as well as on social media. Following completion of the online consent form, participants were directed to an online questionnaire. Participants were offered the opportunity to enter a draw for one of four $100 e-vouchers, funded through internal research funding for this project provided by the Australian Catholic University.

Missing data

A total of 150 participants began the online questionnaire and 126 submitted it. The data of the 24 participants who did not submit the questionnaire were excluded from analysis, in accordance with institutional ethics requirements. The data of a further four participants were not included as they reported having begun but failed to complete their internships and therefore fell outside the scope of the present research. There were no natural missing data points due to the requirement to complete all fields to progress.

Results

Assumptions checks for the intended analyses were conducted and met, with the exception of normality, for which Shapiro–Wilk tests confirmed violations for all variables (p < .05). As such, Spearman’s rank-order correlations were conducted and bootstrapping techniques were applied using 5000 bootstrapped samples (as per Preacher & Hayes, 2008).

Descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations

Table 1 shows the descriptive statistics and bivariate relationships for all study variables. Positive correlations were yielded between overall internship satisfaction, internship completion status, learning prioritisation, and supervision quality. Modest relationships were also found between perceived sense of professional competence and the prioritisation of learning, quality of supervision, and internship satisfaction.

Table 1.

Descriptive statistics and Spearman rank-order correlations.

Variable M SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1. Internship Statusa – – –            
2. Internship Incomeb – – −.07 –          
3. Financial Situationc – – .09 .31** –        
4. Learning Prioritisation 2.83 1.28 −.00 .08 .13 –      
5. Supervision Quality 45.36 12.86 .06 .09 −.03 .30** –    
6. Internship Satisfaction 3.48 1.15 .20* .11 .14 .56** .45** –  
7. Perceived Competency 49.92 5.02 .04 .19* .01 .21* .27** .33** –
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Note. N = 122, except for correlations with internship income (N = 119). *p < .05, **p < .01. aInternship status was treated as a dummy coded variable (0 = Current Intern, 46%; 1 = Completed Intern, 54%). bInternship income was treated as an ordinal variable with categories “Less than $40,000” (11%), “$40,000–$49,999” (9%); “$50,000-$59,999” (13%); “$60,000-$69,999” (18%); “$70,000–79,999” (26%); “$80,000-$89,999” (12%); “$90,000-$99,999” (8%); “$100,000-$149,999” (2%); “$150,000 or more” (1%), coded 0 to 8, respectively. cFinancial situation was treated as a dummy coded variable (0 = Strain, 42%; 1 = No Strain, 58%). The “strain” group comprised participants who reported they “could not make ends meet” (10%) or “had to cut back” (32%). Those classified as “no strain” reported “enough but no extra” (40%) or “comfortable with extra” (18%).

Hierarchical regressions

Factors related to internship satisfaction

A hierarchical regression was conducted to examine factors hypothesised to be related to internship satisfaction, including financial situation during the internship year, two aspects of the internship experience (prioritisation of learning and quality of supervision), and internship completion status. Annual income and internship completion status were controlled for and entered in step one. To enable the incremental contribution of the remaining three variables to be examined, these were entered separately in steps two to four. Finally, interactions between financial situation and internship completion status with prioritisation of learning and supervision quality were entered in step five (see Table 2). As per common practice, interpretation of main effects was from the step prior to the addition of these interaction terms. This is because once interactions are entered, lower-order effects represent conditional effects evaluated at the reference of the moderator, rather than overall effects for key variables of interest (Aiken & West, 1991; Cohen et al., 2003) Meanwhile, hypothesised moderation relationships were examined from the final step in the regression.

Table 2.

Hierarchical regression for factors related to internship satisfaction.

Variable R2 ΔR2 Ba SE(B) a β t p-value
Step 1 0.05            
Income     0.07 0.06 0.11 1.22 .267
Internship Status     0.43 0.21 0.19 2.05 .042*
Step 2 0.05 0.01          
Income     0.05 0.06 0.09 0.91 .384
Internship Status     0.41 0.21 0.18 1.92 .065
Financial Situation     0.21 0.21 0.09 0.93 .331
Step 3 0.37*** 0.32***          
Income     0.04 0.05 0.07 0.85 .448
Internship Status     0.45 0.17 0.20 2.60 .011*
Financial Situation     0.06 0.17 0.02 0.30 .753
Learning Prioritisation     0.52 0.07 0.57 7.64 <.001***
Step 4 0.47*** 0.10***          
Income     0.02 0.05 0.03 0.35 .749
Internship Status     0.39 0.16 0.17 2.43 .018*
Financial Situation     0.13 0.16 0.05 0.75 .435
Learning Prioritisation     0.41 0.08 0.45 6.15 <.001***
Supervision Quality     0.03 0.01 0.34 4.64 <.001***
Step 5 0.51*** 0.04          
Income     0.01 0.05 0.01 0.17 .880
Internship Status     0.19 0.21 0.08 0.75 .368
Financial Situation     −0.03 0.24 −0.01 −0.13 .899
Learning Prioritisation     0.30 0.11 0.34 2.51 .009**
Supervision Quality     0.06 0.01 0.66 4.80 <.001***
Financial X Learning     0.03 0.14 0.02 .18 .864
Financial X Supervision     −0.03 0.01 −0.23 −2.11 .028*
Status X Financial     0.35 0.32 0.14 1.05 .285
Status X Learning     0.09 0.14 0.08 0.67 .515
Status X Supervision     −0.02 0.01 −0.17 −1.57 .112
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Note. aBootstrapped estimates based on 5000 samples. B = unstandardised regression. SE = standard error. β = standardised regression coefficient. LL = Lower limit; UL = Upper limit; ∆ R2 = R2 change; Financial = Financial Situation; Learning = Prioritisation of Learning; Supervision = Supervision Quality; Status = Internship Status; *p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001.

The overall model was significant, accounting for 51% of the variance in overall internship satisfaction, R2 = .51, F(10,108) = 11.42, p < .001. Controlling for annual reported income during the internship year and internship completion status, financial situation at the time of internship did not contribute uniquely to internship satisfaction. Meanwhile, both prioritisation of learning and supervision quality collectively accounted for 47% of the variance in internship satisfaction, such that participants reporting greater prioritisation of learning over service/business interests and better supervision quality also reported greater overall internship satisfaction. However, this was qualified by a significant interaction effect between supervision quality and financial situation (see Figure 1). Bootstrapped post-hoc analyses revealed the relationship between supervision quality and overall internship satisfaction was stronger for those who experienced financial strain during their internship year (B = 0.07, t = 7.95, p < .001) than those reporting no financial strain (B = 0.03, t = 2.56, p = .013). There were no interactions between internship completion status and either internship experience aspect (prioritisation of learning and supervision quality), nor financial situation during the internship year. A main effect was, however, present – those who had completed their internship tended to evaluate their internship experience as more favourable than those still completing their program requirements.

Figure 1.

A line graph showing mean internship satisfaction by supervision quality for financial strain groups.

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Interaction effect of financial strain and supervision quality on internship satisfaction.

Factors related to perceived professional competence

A hierarchical regression was conducted to investigate hypothesised relations between aspects of the internship (learning prioritisation and supervision quality) and overall internship satisfaction with perceived sense of professional competence. Whether these relationships were contingent on internship completion status was also examined. Internship completion status was entered in the first step. To examine the incremental contribution to variance in perceived sense of professional competence, learning prioritisation and supervision quality were entered in step two, separate from overall internship satisfaction, which was entered in step three. Interactions between internship completion status and all three other variables in the model were then entered in step four (see Table 3). Consistent with the previous analysis, main effects were interpreted from the step prior to the addition of interaction terms, while hypothesised moderation relationships were examined in the final step of the regression model.

Table 3.

Hierarchical regression predicting internship satisfaction.

Variable R2 ΔR2 Ba SE(B)a β t p-value
Step 1 0.00            
Internship Status     0.57 0.93 0.06 0.63 .537
Step 2 0.10** 0.10**          
Internship Status     0.49 0.89 0.05 0.56 .579
Learning Prioritisation     0.46 0.33 0.12 1.26 .166
Supervision Quality     0.10 0.04 0.25 2.73 .008**
Step 3 0.13** 0.03*          
Internship Status     0.06 0.87 0.01 0.07 .940
Learning Prioritisation     0.02 0.43 0.01 0.05 .965
Supervision Quality     0.07 0.04 0.08 1.76 .066
Internship Satisfaction     1.03 0.54 0.24 1.99 .060
Step 4 0.18** 0.05          
Internship Status     −0.00 0.87 0.00 −0.00 .999
Learning Prioritisation     −0.20 0.68 −0.05 −0.33 .756
Supervision Quality     0.04 0.08 0.10 0.65 .575
Internship Satisfaction     2.38 0.88 0.55 3.08 .006**
Status X Learning     0.50 0.84 0.09 0.60 .546
Satisfaction X Supervision     0.03 0.09 0.05 0.33 .757
Satisfaction X Status     −2.48 1.07 −0.41 −2.40 .020*
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Note. aBootstrapped estimates based on 5000 samples. B = unstandardised regression. SE = standard error. β = standardised regression coefficient. LL = Lower limit; UL = Upper limit; ∆ R2 = R2 change; Status = Internship Status; Learning = Prioritisation of Learning; Satisfaction = Internship Satisfaction; Supervision = Supervision Quality; *p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001.

The overall model was significant, accounting for 18% of the variance in perceived sense of professional competency, R2 = .18, F(7,114) = 3.66, p = .001. Controlling for internship completion status, aspects of the internship experience (prioritisation of learning over service/business interests and supervision quality) accounted for 10% of the variance in professional competence. This effect was largely driven by a significant relationship between supervision quality and perceived professional competence, such that those reporting better quality supervision while on their internship reported a greater current sense of professional competence. Whether employers were deemed to have prioritised the learning of interns over the needs of the service/business was not associated with perceived sense of professional competence. The addition of internship satisfaction to the model resulted in a marginally significant contribution to variance in perceived sense of professional competence (3%). Interestingly, once internship satisfaction was controlled for, the effect of supervision quality on perceived professional competence ceased to be significant. The bootstrapped estimate for internship satisfaction also did not reach significance, suggesting that once bootstrapping procedures were applied, overall satisfaction while on internship did not uniquely predict current perceived professional competence. However, this was qualified by a significant interaction between internship satisfaction and internship completion status, with bootstrapped post-hoc analyses showing greater overall internship satisfaction was related to perceived professional competence, but only for those participants currently completing their internships (B = 2.53, t = 4.36, p < .001), while no such effect was present for those who had already completed their internship programs (B = 0.41, t = .85, p = .393; see Figure 2).

Figure 2.

A line graph showing mean perceived professional competency by internship status and internship satisfaction.

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Interaction effect of internship status and internship satisfaction on perceived professional competency.

Multiple moderated mediation model

A model that could provide a more nuanced understanding of factors contributing to current sense of competence than identified through each hierarchical regression analysis alone was explored. It was noted that in regression two, supervision quality initially contributed to the prediction of perceived professional competence (the only aspect of internship experience to do so), until overall internship satisfaction was included in the model. In regression one, supervision quality was found to contribute to the prediction of overall internship satisfaction. Taking these results together, it was deemed plausible that the relationship between quality of supervision while on internship and current perceived professional competence might be fully mediated by overall internship satisfaction. Considering the interaction effects yielded in both analyses, it was further surmised that the effect of supervision quality on overall internship satisfaction might be moderated by financial situation, and that the effect of internship satisfaction on perceived sense of professional competence might vary as a function of internship completion status. A multiple moderated mediation model capturing these post-hoc hypothesised relationships was tested using Model 21 of the PROCESS Macro (version 5.0; Hayes, 2025) with 5000 bootstrapped samples to create bias-corrected confidence intervals. The total effect, direct effects, first and second stage moderation, and conditional indirect effects were calculated. In line with Hayes (2022) recommendations, an indirect effect was considered significant if the bias-corrected confidence interval around the point estimate did not cross zero.

The results of the hypothesised multiple moderated mediation analysis are depicted in Figure 3 (see also supplementary material Tables 1 and 2). The total effect of supervision quality on perceived competence was significant (c: B = .17, SE = .07, p = .013, 95% CI [.04, .30]). Consistent with the results of the hierarchical regression analyses, higher rated supervision quality was associated with greater overall internship satisfaction (path a: B = 0.07, SE = .01, p < .001, 95% CI [.05, .09]), and this effect was moderated by financial situation (B = −0.04, SE = .02, p = .010, 95% CI [−.07, −.01]), such that it was more pronounced for participants who experienced financial strain during their internship year (B = 0.07, SE = .01, p < .001, 95% CI [.05, .09]), versus those who did not report financial strain (B = 0.03, SE = .01, p = .005, 95% CI [.01, .05). Overall internship satisfaction was associated with higher current perceived professional competence (path b: B = 2.14, SE = .60, p < .001, 95% CI [.96, 3.32]). However, internship completion status moderated this effect (B = −1.99, SE = .75, p = .009, 95% CI [−3.47, −.51]), such that it was present only for current interns (B = 2.14, SE = .60, p < .001, 95% CI [.96, 3.32]) and not those who had completed their internship requirements (B = 0.15, SE = .54, p = .782, 95% CI [−.93, 1.23]).

Figure 3.

Diagram of links: supervision quality, finances, internship status and perceived competency. The diagram illustrates the relationships between various factors affecting perceived competency. Supervision Quality influences Internship Satisfaction with a path coefficient of alpha: 0.07 (0.01) with three asterisks. Financial Situation moderates this relationship with an interaction effect of Int: -0.04 (0.01) with one asterisk. Internship Satisfaction affects Perceived Competency with a path coefficient of b: 2.14 (0.60) with three asterisks. Internship Status moderates this effect with an interaction effect of Int: -1.99 (0.75) with two asterisks. The direct effect of Supervision Quality on Perceived Competency is c prime: 0.06 (0.04).

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Multiple moderated mediation analysis.

Note. Int=Interaction; Total effect (c)=.17(.07)*; p < .05*, p < .01**, p < .001***.

The conditional indirect effect of supervision quality on perceived professional competency via satisfaction was significant for current interns experiencing financial strain (B = 0.14, SE = .05, 95% CI [0.06, 0.24]), as well as current interns who did not report financial strain (B = 0.06, SE = 0.03, 95% CI [0.01, 0.14]). However, the indirect effect was not significant for participants who had completed their internship, regardless of financial situation. The index of moderated mediation was significant (Index = 0.08, SE = .05, 95% CI [0.01, 0.20]), showing the indirect effect of supervision quality on perceived professional competence via overall internship satisfaction varied jointly by financial situation and internship status, with the strongest pathway being for those experiencing financial strain and current interns only (see Supplementary Material Table 3). Owing to the absence of a direct effect of supervision quality on perceived professional competence (path c’ =0.06, SE = .04, p = .138), the results are suggestive of full mediation.

Discussion

This study investigated the impact of an array of internship-related factors on psychology internship satisfaction. The complex ways in which these factors might contribute to perceived professional competence for both current and past interns was also explored.

The findings indicate that perceptions of lack of learning prioritisation over service/business interests during internships are negatively associated with internship satisfaction. These data also showed that perceived supervision quality contributes to internship satisfaction, and this effect is heightened for interns under financial strain. Financial strain otherwise yielded no direct association with internship satisfaction. Though not a key focus of this study, internship satisfaction was also influenced by completion status, such that interns more distanced from the internship experience (i.e., completed interns) reported greater internship satisfaction retrospectively than those more proximal to the experience (i.e., current interns). It could be the case that interns struggle to fully reflect on the value and positive aspects of their internships while immersed in the various demands and pressures imposed by internships (e.g., new learning, assessment, feedback) but find that capacity with the passing of time. Or perhaps it is simply the “rosy retrospection” (Mitchell et al., 1997) effect in action. Of import, the relationships found between internship-related factors and overall internship satisfaction were not contingent on internship completion status. This suggests the impacts of learning prioritisation and supervision quality on internship satisfaction are enduring.

Greater quality supervision was a driving force supporting interns’ current sense of perceived professional competence, while the overall influence of internship satisfaction on self-perceived competence was negligible. This was except for current interns, for whom internship satisfaction seemed to matter more markedly when it came to self-perceived competence, perhaps owing to being yet to benefit from the experience of distance from internships and the confidence boost of unconditional professional practice.

Finally, exploratory modelling showed that perceptions of supervision quality while on internship indirectly impacted interns’ current sense of professional competence via internship satisfaction. This indirect effect was only found for those currently completing their internship, and not those reflecting on already completed internships, whose retrospective reflections on internships tended to be more positive than those provided by current interns. The indirect effect was also strongest for those current interns experiencing financial strain, compared to those reporting no financial strain.

Drawing on the lived experiences and perspectives of psychology interns themselves, findings from this study reinforce the critical role that quality supervision plays in the development of psychologists. It also sheds light on a previously unexplored but complex interplay between internship-related factors and internship outcomes. In the context of internationally rising living costs, a global mental health crisis, and unmet psychology workforce demands, this study makes a timely contribution with potential implications for the profession, educators, policy makers, and regulators.

The impact and importance of prioritising learning and quality supervision

The finding that the prioritisation of learning over the interests of the service/business was associated with greater internship satisfaction provides empirical support for the principle that internship programs ought to preference intern training and learning over and above service interests and revenue (APA, 2026). This finding also lends support to the notion that a perceived breach of the “psychological contract” (L. N. Tan & Tiangco, 2025) within an internship context may result from the failure of the internship provider to meet reasonable expectations, and consequently, impact internship satisfaction. Indeed, as prior research shows, when overall internship satisfaction is rated as poor, interns cite a lack of learning and training opportunities among the reasons (Moulton-Perkins et al., 2019).

Research also demonstrates that supervision predicts internship satisfaction (Benuto et al., 2019) and that supervision issues and a lack of financial remuneration contribute to a poor internship experience (Moulton-Perkins et al., 2019). Such findings are supported by the current data, which show that higher quality supervision is related to greater internship satisfaction, especially for interns experiencing financial hardship. It may be the case that interns in precarious financial circumstances tend to evaluate internships more harshly when they perceive the “psychological contract” between intern and provider has been breached, as in the case of deficient supervision, due to (perhaps, by necessity) a more exacting cost-benefit analysis of the internship experience. A more optimistic interpretation is that quality supervision may be especially important and impactful for more vulnerable subgroups of interns, serving a protective function in the face of adversity. Though beyond the scope of the current study, this begs the question of whether other priority groups, such as interns from underrepresented cultural groups, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations, or those identifying with a disability, as gender diverse, or LGBTQI+, may also experience heightened protective benefits from good supervision. Certainly, research programs showing that student and early career psychologists from low socio-economic (e.g., Wilcox et al., 2021) and first-generation (e.g., Wilcox et al., 2022) student groups experience greater professional-related financial impacts, including the ability to focus on their work, lends some credence to the notion that high-quality supervision could serve a protective function for especially vulnerable interns. Future research ought to explore this possibility and internship training programs would do well to capitalise on these findings in improving equitable opportunities for these interns, often facing multiple barriers. This aligns with recent calls to improve awareness of structural and cultural processes in supervision, particularly in the context of work with supervisees from underrepresented groups (Wilcox et al., 2024; Winkeljohn Black et al., 2025).

More broadly, quality supervision has been found to be associated with reduced burnout and improved retention of registered mental health professionals, including psychologists, social workers and counsellors (Martin et al., 2021), while dissatisfaction with internship supervision has been linked to intentions to leave the current jurisdiction, with likely implications for the local workforce (Pillay & Johnston, 2011). Extrapolating across studies, it may be the case that internship satisfaction can impact intentions to remain in the profession, especially in the current landscape where demand often outstrips psychology service availability and thus warrants further exploration. To maximise the potential benefits of supervision, these authors recommend educational investment in supervisor training and development, and for internship regulators to work with stakeholders (e.g., supervisors, and internship host organisations) to invest in policy and practices that engender high-quality supervision. Additionally, supervisors should not engage in supervision prematurely (Hendricks et al., 2021) and measures should be implemented to enhance supervisor accountability (Ladany et al., 2013).

It is also important to acknowledge that supervisors work within broader systems and organisational contexts, and an understandable tension exists for internship providers between the need to provide interns with robust and appropriate learning opportunities and the interests of the service/business (Pizarro-Campagna & Paparo, 2025). Therefore, these authors contend that internship providers should in the first instance be provided with education and support to assist them in designing internships that prioritise intern learning, as well as support best-practice supervision. Where issues are identified, supervisors should be held to account, transforming the “psychological contract” that exists between intern and internship provider into a regulatory expectation. Currently, stipulations for intern supervisors and internship providers vary widely across jurisdictions. In Australia, no accreditation requirements exist for psychology internships, with accountability for the quality of training that interns receive sitting solely with interns themselves and their supervisors, and little to no responsibility that these expectations be met imposed on internship providers (Pizarro-Campagna & Paparo, 2025). These authors argue that internship providers must bear responsibility for the quality of the experiences and training that interns receive during their internship year. Regulators should not only set clear guidelines for internships to follow, but also adherence to such standards should be routinely monitored, and such monitoring ought to include the intern perspective, since internship guidelines alone do not necessarily translate into quality internships that prioritise the intern experience (Palitsky et al., 2022).

Supervision quality matters for intern perceived competence, but it’s conditional and there are caveats

What leads to perceived sense of professional competence for the intern is not straightforward and likely the result of various contributing and interacting factors. The current findings contribute to this understanding, highlighting that quality of supervision may indirectly impact perceived sense of professional competence via internship satisfaction, but only for those currently undertaking their internship, and most saliently, those experiencing financial strain. It may be that following internship completion, now licensed psychologists continue to engage in further professional development (e.g., further training and supervision), experience successful objective outcomes (e.g., job offers), and further build their self-efficacy via unconditional psychological practice, offsetting the impact of their internship experience. It is, however, worth noting that those who completed internships did not actually report a greater sense of competence than those currently completing their internships; internship completion status merely qualified the impact of internship satisfaction on perceived sense of professional competence. Future studies employing a longitudinal design would be beneficial to further unpack these relationships. Nonetheless, these data are indicative of the existence of a link between internship factors and perceived sense of professional competence (at least, for current interns). Given belief in one’s ability to competently perform clinical skills and thus successfully translate psychological training into competent practice tends to be rather precarious (Kolar et al., 2017), and especially for early career psychologists still developing a sense of professional identity (Green & Hawley, 2009), these findings warrant some attention.

Strengths and limitations

A key strength of the current study was the consideration of intern voices, consistent with calls for these perspectives to be heard and leveraged in influencing internship program evaluation and accreditation (Palitsky et al., 2022). However, the reliance on self-report data, fundamentally limited owing to its subjective nature, requires acknowledgement. That the sample was partly drawn from online recruitment sources (e.g., social media) also warrants mentioning as the integrity of such data might be regarded as questionable. Another limitation was the cross-sectional nature of the data, particularly where employing a mediational design, for which longitudinal data are better suited (Jose, 2016). Therefore, the exploratory mediation analysis should be interpreted with caution, especially in light of the modest sample size. Although the factors explored in the current study appear to play an important role in intern outcomes, many other factors outside the scope of this study could also be reasonably expected to contribute to intern satisfaction and self-efficacy. Additional research ought to explore the role of such variables in the narrative of factors contributing to internship satisfaction and perceived sense of professional competence, as well as the interplay between them. These future investigations would ideally integrate qualitative study methodologies, which have the potential to yield richer and more nuanced information than can be garnered via quantitative research alone. Finally, though outside the scope of this study, a very small minority of participants in the broader study endorsed having attempted but not completed their internships. Understanding the internship experiences of this subgroup who withdrew from their internships prematurely is crucial to uncovering what might contribute to unsuccessful internships and for addressing workforce retention issues.

Implications and conclusion

This study underscores the pivotal role of quality supervision in shaping psychology interns’ experiences and outcomes. Supervision quality emerged as especially critical for sustaining internship satisfaction, particularly among potentially vulnerable subgroups of interns. This suggests targeted investment in supervisor training and accountability could improve access, participation, and success for intern populations. These findings also highlight the importance that intern learning be prioritised over service/business interests, reinforcing the ethical imperative that the needs of the trainee remain front and centre in the design and implementation of psychology internship programs.

The current study further revealed a nuanced and conditional relationship between supervision, internship satisfaction, and professional competence. For current interns only, satisfaction with the psychology internship fully mediated the link between supervision quality and perceived sense of professional competence. This relationship was particularly strong for those experiencing financial strain during their internship year. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to uncover the complex interplay between financial situation, perceptions of supervision quality, and internship satisfaction, as part of a broader process linked to self-perceived professional competence, itself an area of research to have received limited empirical attention and thus poorly understood.

Although the current results may seem self-evident, that interns themselves continue to report internship experiences inconsistent with best-practice standards warrants a call to action to translate such findings into actionable policy that can foster systemic improvements in supervision and internship practices, and in turn, support the development of a sustainable psychology workforce. Even in Australia, where the future of the one-year internship program appears to be in doubt (Psychology Board of Australia, 2026), these insights remain highly applicable in their emphasis on the primary importance of good quality supervision and carefully curated training experiences in supporting diverse cohorts of students during the pre-registration period, a critical stage for shaping would-be psychologist confidence and competence.

Collectively, these findings call for systemic changes, including evidence-based supervisory practices, establishing clear internship standards, and ensuring provider accountability. Such measures are essential for safeguarding intern learning, strengthening professional identity, and addressing workforce challenges in psychology.

Supplementary Material

Supplemental material
RAUP_A_2691729_SM5193.docx (22KB, docx)

Funding Statement

The work was supported by funding directly provided by the Australian Catholic University to support participant incentives for this research.

Note

1.

The “rosy retrospection effect” (Mitchell et al., 1997) refers to the tendency for individuals to more fondly remember events in the past than they felt about the same event at the time of its occurrence. In this study, “rosy retrospection” was extended to the experience of psychology practitioners who had previously completed their internship training, versus those currently undertaking these experiences.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data materials will be made available via a data repository at the conclusion of the research program or otherwise can be provided upon request to the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/00049530.2026.2691729

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Supplementary Materials

Supplemental material
RAUP_A_2691729_SM5193.docx (22KB, docx)

Data Availability Statement

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