How does strength use relate to burnout among Chinese healthcare professionals? Exploring the mediating roles of beliefs about stress and basic psychological needs satisfaction.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of burnout among healthcare workers remains chronically high. Former studies have indicated that strength use is a promising approach to reduce burnout. However, relatively little is known about the psychological mechanisms underlying the ability of strength use to reduce burnout, especially among healthcare workers. AIM: This study sought to examine the link between strength use and burnout in Chinese healthcare workers, and to explore the mediating roles of beliefs about stress and basic psychological needs satisfaction in that relationship. METHODS: This study was conducted in two time periods, from September to October 2020 and from February to September 2022. A total of 812 healthcare workers completed a multi-section questionnaire. RESULTS: Strength use was negatively associated with burnout and negative stress beliefs, and positively associated with positive stress beliefs, control beliefs, and basic psychological needs satisfaction. Moreover, negative stress beliefs, control beliefs, and basic psychological needs satisfaction fully mediated the relationship between strength use and burnout. Furthermore, effect contrasts revealed that the mediating effect of basic psychological needs satisfaction was stronger than that of negative stress beliefs and control beliefs. CONCLUSION: Our findings revealed that negative stress beliefs, control beliefs, and basic psychological needs satisfaction act as mediators in the association of strength use with burnout. Furthermore, basic psychological needs satisfaction plays a more important mediating role than negative stress beliefs and control beliefs in the strength use-burnout relationship.

Invalidating environment and meaning in life: The Chain Mediating Effects of regulatory emotional self-efficacy and basic psychological needs satisfaction.

BACKGROUND: Although people strive for meaning in life, life is full of experiences that challenge meaning. According to Bowen's family systems theory, the family is both a relational and an emotional system in which family members influence and are influenced by each other. Invalidating environment, reflecting a deficient family emotional setting, may be a key influencing factor in diminishing meaning in life. Existing studies have not directly explored the effects of the invalidating environment on meaning in life and its underlying mechanism. OBJECTIVE: Guided by Bowen's family systems theory, this study aims to explore the relationship between invalidating environment and meaning in life, as well as the mediating effects of regulatory emotional self-efficacy and the satisfaction of basic psychological needs. METHODS: A sample of 555 university students (62.5 % female, 37.5 % male; Mage =19.13 years old, SD = 1.72) completed questionnaires regarding demographics, invalidating environment, meaning in life, regulatory emotional self-efficacy, and basic psychological needs satisfaction. RESULTS: Results revealed that: (a) invalidating environment negatively predicts meaning in life; (b) regulatory emotional self-efficacy and basic psychological needs satisfaction serve as both independent and chain mediators between invalidating environment and meaning in life. CONCLUSION: Invalidating environment affects meaning in life through regulatory emotional self-efficacy and basic psychological needs satisfaction. This finding has significant theoretical implications and provides a feasible pathway to improve children's meaning in life at both the parent and child levels.

How does gratitude relate to nurses' job satisfaction? The mediating role of resilience and stress.

BACKGROUND: Nurse job satisfaction is a critical area of study with far-reaching implications for healthcare organizations, patient care, and the retention of nursing staff. AIMS: This study aimed to investigate the association of gratitude with job satisfaction among Chinese nurses and examine the potential mediating roles of resilience and stress in this relationship. METHODS: Two separate studies were conducted to examine our research hypotheses. In Study 1, a total of 460 nurses completed the questionnaire related to gratitude, resilience, stress, and job satisfaction. A validation study was conducted in Study 2, which consisted of 709 nurses who also completed the same measures of gratitude, resilience, and stress to ensure the repeatability of the Study 1 results. Furthermore, a different scale was used to measure nurses' job satisfaction. RESULTS: The two studies consistently found that both resilience and stress mediated gratitude-job satisfaction independently among Chinese nurses. Furthermore, resilience was found to be a significantly stronger mediator than stress in the association of gratitude with job satisfaction. Finally, we found that gratitude predicted nurses' job satisfaction via the serial mediating effects of resilience and stress. CONCLUSION: These findings highlight the complex interplay between gratitude, resilience, stress, and job satisfaction by demonstrating that resilience and stress act as parallel and sequential mediators between nurses' gratitude and job satisfaction. The healthcare sector can improve nurses' job satisfaction by increasing gratitude, building resilience, and reducing feelings of stress. LINKING EVIDENCE TO ACTION: Nurse managers have the potential to enhance job satisfaction among nurses by implementing measures that increase gratitude, build resilience, and reduce stress levels.

Longitudinal linkages between strength use and depressive symptoms in Chinese nurses: A two wave, cross-lagged study.

Nurses are at increased risk for developing depressive symptoms. While previous research has suggested that strength use may be inversely related to these symptoms, the longitudinal impact of strength use on nurses' depressive symptoms remains under-explored. This study sought to examine the longitudinal relationship between strength use and depressive symptoms among Chinese nurses. Using a two-wave cross-lagged design from 2020 to 2023, 321 nurses participated in an online questionnaire survey. Using structural equation modeling, our results supported the hypothesized reciprocal model, indicating that strength use can significantly predict a reduction in depressive symptoms and vice versa. Given these findings, there's an urgent need for nurse leaders to emphasize the importance of using nurses' strengths as a strategy to alleviate depressive symptoms.

Control beliefs about stress and post-traumatic growth in nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic: The mediating roles of basic psychological needs satisfaction and optimism.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between control beliefs about stress and post-traumatic growth among Chinese nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic and to examine the mediating role of basic psychological needs satisfaction and optimism in this relationship. A total of 692 Chinese nurses participated in this online study, who completed the Beliefs about Stress Scale, Post-Traumatic Growth Inventory, Positive Psychological Capital Questionnaire, Basic Psychological Needs Satisfaction Scale and demographic variables between September and October 2020. Results indicate that 48.8% (N = 388) of nurses reported significant post-traumatic growth related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, control beliefs about stress were positively related to post-traumatic growth (r = 0.38, p < 0.001), basic psychological needs satisfaction (r = 0.44, p < 0.001) and optimism (r = 0.47, p < 0.001). In addition, basic psychological needs satisfaction and optimism were both independent and serial mediators of the relationship between control beliefs about stress and post-traumatic growth. Nurses and hospital administrators should focus on increasing nurses' control beliefs about stress and thereby enhancing their post-traumatic growth after experiencing events such as the COVID-19 pandemic. To support this process, programs should be designed to meet nurses' basic psychological needs and increase their optimism.

How does strength use relate to posttraumatic growth in health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic? The mediating role of self-efficacy and optimism.

OBJECTIVES: Research on the use of strengths has suggested that it can promote individuals' psychological health and well-being. This study aimed to examine the relationship between strength use and posttraumatic growth (PTG) in the context of COVID-19 pandemic among health care workers, as well as the mediating role of psychological capital in this relationship. METHOD: A total of 740 health care workers completed the Strengths Use Scale, the Positive Psychological Capital Scale, and the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory. Descriptive, correlational, and multiple mediation analyses were performed to analyze the data. RESULTS: Participants of 55.9% reported experiencing significant PTG during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study found a significant and positive correlation between strength use, psychological capital, and PTG. In addition, the study found that self-efficacy and optimism, but not hope and resilience, mediated the linkage between strength use and PTG linked to the COVID-19 pandemic. The results also indicated that self-efficacy and optimism had equal importance in the strength use-PTG link. CONCLUSIONS: The study concludes that strength use is positively related to PTG in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic through the mediating roles of self-efficacy and optimism. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Personal strength use and job satisfaction in Chinese nurses: The mediating roles of basic psychological needs satisfaction and resilience.

AIM: This study aimed to investigate the association of personal strength use with job satisfaction among Chinese nurses and to examine the mediating roles of basic psychological needs satisfaction and resilience in this association. BACKGROUND: The topic of nurses' job satisfaction has been extensively studied worldwide because of its significant effects on nurse turnover, recruitment, and quality of care. METHODS: A sample of 417 nurses completed a multi-section questionnaire that included established scales to measure personal strength use, basic psychological needs satisfaction, resilience, and job satisfaction. RESULTS: The results revealed that personal strength use was positively linked to nurses' job satisfaction. Additionally, basic psychological needs satisfaction and resilience mediated the association of personal strength use with job satisfaction both independently and serially. CONCLUSION: Personal strength use increases nurses' job satisfaction by satisfying their basic psychological needs and improving their resilience. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING AND HEALTH POLICY: Creating a culture that supports the use of personal strengths among nurses is a promising strategy that hospital managers could consider to enhance nurses' job satisfaction. Furthermore, implementing programs and interventions to improve nurses' basic psychological needs satisfaction and resilience could further boost their job satisfaction.

Strength use and workers' job burnout in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: The mediating role of psychological capital.

AIM: This research aimed to explore the link of strength use with job burnout and investigate the role of psychological capital in the strength use-job burnout relationship among Chinese workers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. DESIGN: A descriptive, cross-sectional design. METHOD: This study was conducted from September to October 2020. A total of 351 employees working at Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from five cities in China completed a series of valid and reliable instruments, namely, Strengths Use Questionnaire, Positive Psychological Capital Questionnaire and Job Burnout Questionnaire. The PROCESS macro was used to test our hypotheses. RESULTS: We found that people with higher strength use had lower job burnout compared with those with lower levels of strength use. Furthermore, resilience and hope acted as mediators of the relationship between strength use and job burnout. Moreover, resilience and hope played equally important roles in the strength use-job burnout relationship. CONCLUSION: Resilience and hope mediate the association of strength use with job burnout in workers of Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. IMPACT: Health authorities can alleviate employees' job burnout by encouraging strength use and building their psychological capital, especially resilience and hope.

Stress mindset, proactive coping behavior, and posttraumatic growth among health care professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic.

OBJECTIVE: Recent research suggests that stress mindset influences how people response to stress, however, there is a dearth of research investigates the underlying mechanism accounting for the effects of stress mindset on psychological health. The current research investigated how stress mindset and engagement in proactive coping behaviors predicted posttraumatic growth among health care professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic in China. METHOD: Health care professionals (N = 589) from mainland China were invited to participate in this online study through completing the Stress Mindset Measure, Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI-X), and measurement on engagement in proactive coping behaviors and demographic variables at their convenience from July 9 to July 17, 2020. RESULTS: Health care professionals reported high levels of posttraumatic growth at the total scale (58.6%), subdomains (84.9%). Age, stress mindset, and engagement in proactive coping behaviors were significant predictors of posttraumatic growth among health care professionals. Engagement in proactive coping behavior mediated the predicting effect of stress mindset on posttraumatic growth among health care professionals in China. CONCLUSION: A stress-is-enhancing mindset predicts higher level of posttraumatic growth among health care professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic in China, and the effect was mediated by engagement in proactive coping behaviors. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Height dissatisfaction and loneliness among adolescents: the chain mediating role of social anxiety and social support.

Previous research on body dissatisfaction has mainly focused on the dissatisfaction with weight and appearance. Limited research has examined the dissatisfaction with another major body feature that is important to our social relationships and personal well-being, namely, body height. We hypothesized that height dissatisfaction would predict more intense loneliness among adolescents, and that this relationship is mediated by greater social anxiety and reduced social support. Participants of this study were 515 Chinese high school students. The Shortness subscale of the Negative Physical Self Scale, Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents, Perceived Social Support Scale, and ULS-8 were integrated into a paper-and-pencil survey. The results revealed that adolescents with high levels of height dissatisfaction reported higher levels of loneliness. A chain mediation model showed that the relationship between height dissatisfaction and loneliness could be both sequentially mediated by social anxiety and social support, and mediated by social anxiety. However, no mediating role of social support was found. We also found that body height did not predict social anxiety or social support, but can predict loneliness. The current findings provide novel insights into the occurrence of loneliness among adolescents, and indicate that negative self-perceptions of body height and the resulting social anxiety can lead to loneliness.

Childhood neglect and academic performance in Chinese adolescents: A serial mediation model.

BACKGROUND: Chinese parents and students, especially senior high school students, attach great importance to academic performance. Some studies have confirmed that childhood neglect is related to academic performance. However, the internal mechanism is relatively underexplored. OBJECTIVE: Guided by life course theory and bioecological theory, this study examined the relationship between childhood neglect and academic performance using a serial mediation model that included belief in a just world (PBJW) and academic resilience as hypothesized mediators. METHODS: A sample of 614 tenth grade students (297 males and 307 females, and 10 who did not report their sex; Mage = 15.75 years old, SD = 0.71 years old) completed questionnaires regarding demographics, childhood neglect, PBJW, academic resilience, and academic performance. RESULTS: After demographic covariates were controlled for, the results revealed that: (a) childhood neglect was negatively associated with academic performance; (b) PBJW and academic resilience mediated the link between childhood neglect and academic performance in a parallel fashion; and (c) PBJW and academic resilience also mediated the link between childhood neglect and academic performance in a sequential fashion. CONCLUSIONS: Childhood neglect is negatively related to adolescent academic performance, and the relation is mediated by PBJW and academic resilience both parallelly and sequentially.

The Association between Parental Marital Satisfaction and Adolescent Prosocial Behavior in China: A Moderated Serial Mediation Model.

Parental marital satisfaction is a well-established protective factor for prosocial behavior in adolescents, yet the parental socialization of adolescent prosocial behavior is limited in Chinese culture. Furthermore, it remains unknown whether the association between parental marital satisfaction and adolescent prosocial behavior is mediated by parent-child intimacy and/or adolescent empathy. The present study examined these associations in 480 students (50.4% male, age = 12.7 ± 0.54 years) and one of their parents. Path analysis (Mplus) revealed that parental marital satisfaction was related to a high level of parent-child intimacy, which was, in turn, associated with a high level of adolescent empathy, which itself predicted adolescent prosocial behavior. The serial mediation effect differed between boys and girls. Specifically, compared with boys, girls' parent-child intimacy was a stronger predictor of their empathy, and empathy had a stronger predictive effect on their prosocial behavior. Several implications for interventions and policies for increasing prosocial behavior in children are suggested.

Strength use and nurses' depressive symptoms: The mediating role of basic psychological needs satisfaction.

AIMS: This study aimed to reveal the role of satisfying basic psychological needs in the relationship between strength use and depressive symptoms in nurses. BACKGROUND: There is a high prevalence of depressive symptoms among nurses. Previous studies on different groups have reported that strength use is beneficial for alleviating individuals' depressive symptoms. METHOD: A total of 475 participating Chinese nurses completed questionnaires. Hypotheses were tested using the PROCESS macro. RESULTS: Strength use was positively correlated with basic psychological needs satisfaction overall and negatively correlated with depressive symptoms. Furthermore, autonomy and relatedness satisfaction acted as mediating mechanisms through which strength use influenced depressive symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Autonomy and relatedness satisfaction can mediate the influence of strength use on depressive symptoms in nurses. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: Focus should be placed on improving nurses' strength use level to reduce their depressive symptoms. Hospital managers should create an organisational environment conducive to meeting nurses' basic psychological needs and thereby reduce their depressive symptoms.

Culturally divergent consequences of receiving thanks in close relationships.

We investigated consequences of receiving thanks in close relationships across cultures. Chinese reported more negative feelings than Euro-Canadians after a close other said thanks to them. Likewise, Chinese participants predicted, more than Euro-Canadians did, that a close other would experience negative feelings after receiving thanks from them. No cultural difference was found when receiving thanks from an acquaintance. On the other hand, when not receiving thanks from close others after helping them, Euro-Canadians experienced more negative feelings than did Chinese. We showed that beliefs about saying thanks in close relationships accounted for cultural differences in emotions. Implications for intercultural communication, relationship maintenance, and directions for future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

Belief in a just world lowers perceived intention of corruption: the mediating role of perceived punishment.

Corruption can be unfair and detrimental to societies; however, little is known regarding how individuals perceive corruption. We aim to understand how psychological factors, such as lay belief of the world, influence perceived intention of corruptive behavior. As corruption undermines justice, we hypothesize that belief in a just world to others (BJW-others) reduces perceived intention of corruptive behaviors. We conducted two correlational studies and one experimental study in China. Using hypothetical scenarios, perception toward bribery taking and nepotistic practices were assessed. In Study 1 and Study 2, we consistently found that BJW-others negatively predicted perceived intention of corruption, and this pattern was mediated by perceived likelihood of punishment. We further replicate this result in Study 3 by priming BJW-others, demonstrating its causal effect. The results indicate that BJW as one lay belief can be important in influencing people's attitudes toward corruption. Implications for future research and anti-corruption policies are also discussed.