Perceived Suitability for Being a Dental Hygienist and Self-Compassion: A 6-Month Longitudinal Cohort Study

Perceived professional suitability-students' judgment of whether they are well-suited to their profession-may shift within a semester, yet longitudinal evidence in dental hygiene education is limited. We examined 6-month changes in perceived suitability and their psychological associations.

This longitudinal survey followed dental hygiene students from April to September 2025 in Kitakyushu, Japan. Of 450 eligible students, 402 responded at baseline, and 293 completed both time points. The primary outcome at 6 months was perceived suitability for being a dental hygienist, dichotomized as not well-suited/uncertain versus well-suited. Prospective associations were tested with multivariable logistic regression using April covariates. As a secondary outcome, 6-month transitions-deterioration (well-suited to not/uncertain) and improvement (not/uncertain to well-suited)-were compared by school year with McNemar's tests.

First-year students showed net deterioration, whereas third-year students showed relative stability/improvement. McNemar's tests indicated net deterioration in first-year students (4 vs. 26; p < 0.001) and second-year students (5 vs. 17; p = 0.019), but not in third-year students (13 vs. 7; p = 0.263). In the prospective model, higher baseline positive self-compassion was associated with lower odds of being not well-suited/uncertain at 6 months (OR = 0.90 [0.83-0.96]; p = 0.003), whereas higher HADS-D was associated with higher odds of being not well-suited/uncertain at 6 months (OR = 1.11 [1.00-1.22]; p = 0.044).

Lower self-compassion and higher depressive symptoms at baseline were associated with later reports of being not well-suited/uncertain. These findings indicate associations between self-compassion and perceived suitability; causal inferences cannot be made from this observational study.