authenticity, reflexivity, self-regulation, social work, education

Problem statement: Social work is an emotionally demanding profession, where workers must reflect and regulate emotions. Education does not prepare students for this emotion management, which often leads to unauthenticity. Research question: What are the relationships between authenticity, self-regulation and reflexivity for Czech students of social work? Purpose of the study: The article aims to map the relationships between authenticity, self-regulation and reflexivity in Czech social work students and to determine the implications for social work based on these relationships mapping. Research methods: The data were obtained by quantitative research strategy; specifically by a questionnaire survey, in which 102 sets of questionnaires (Authenticity Scale, Generalized Expectancy for Negative Mood Regulation Scale and Groningen Reflexion Ability Scale) were obtained by intentional criterion selection. The data were processed using the Pearson's correlation coefficient, the analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the Krustal-Wallis test. Findings: The research has found that: a) a high degree of reflexivity is associated with a low degree of authenticity; b) a high degree of self-regulation is associated with a low degree of authenticity; c) a high degree of reflexivity is associated with a high degree of self-regulation; and d) the length of practice is related to reflexivity. Conclusions: High reflexivity enhances high self-regulation and this leads to low authenticity. However, there is a question of how reflexivity is constructed by students of social work. For social work students, reflexivity seems to be viewed through the technical rationality. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen holistic reflexivity of students, which can strengthen their authenticity in practice.