Perceived stress and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder in nurses: A moderated mediation model of maladaptive cognitive emotional regulation and psychological capital

Abstract

Nurses often face a variety of work-related and life-related stresses that make them more prone to symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), yet the underlying mechanism of this association is poorly understood. To address this research gap, we investigated the mediating role of maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies in the relationship between perceived stress and PTSD symptoms, and explored whether psychological capital could moderate the direct or indirect effects between perceived stress and PTSD symptoms. Nurses (N = 723) completed a questionnaire about perceived stress, PTSD symptoms, maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies and psychological capital. After controlling for gender, age and work department, perceived stress was positively correlated with PTSD symptoms. Maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies partially mediated this relationship. Psychological capital moderates the effects of perceived stress and maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies on PTSD symptoms. Specifically, the positive correlation between perceived stress and PTSD symptoms was stronger among nurses with low levels of psychological capital than among nurses with high levels of psychological capital. At the same time, the positive correlation between maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies and PTSD symptoms was stronger in nurses with a low level of psychological capital. Therefore, cognitive strategies and interventions oriented toward psychological capital may alleviate the PTSD symptoms of nurses in stressful situations.

The relationship between psychological capital, burnout and perceived stress in junior nurses: a latent profile analysis

“…The results of this study indicate that junior nurses who perceive stress are likely to belong to the low psychological capital category. Although every nurse faces a variety of stressors in their work scenario, the impact of these stressful events depends in part on how the individual perceives the stress generated by these events to be ( 46 , 47 ). Junior nurses with low psychological capital are accustomed to characterizing stressful events with negative perceptions, thus perceiving more stress and being affected by it ( 48 , 49 ).…”

Registered nurses' psychological capital: A scoping review

“…PsyCap has correlated negatively with many RNs' undesired work-related outcomes. It correlated negatively with burnout in 12 studies Bae et al, 2021;Bao & Taliaferro, 2015;Flinkman et al, 2023;Kim & Kweon, 2020;Li et al, 2019;Liu et al, 2021;Peng et al, 2013;Tang et al, 2023;Yıldırım et al, 2021;Zhou, Yang, et al, 2018;Zhu, Shen, et al, 2021), with stress in five studies (Hao et al, 2020;Kim & Kweon, 2020;Liu et al, 2021;Xue et al, 2022;Yim et al, 2017) and with psychological distress in three studies (Brunetto, Rodwell, et al, 2016;Xiao et al, 2022;Zhou et al, 2017). health and well-being has been highlighted as an important component in retaining the healthcare workforce (Anderson et al, 2021).…”

The mediating and moderating role of rumination and cognitive reappraisal between perceived stress and prenatal depression: a multicenter cross-sectional study in southeast China

“…Previous studies have shown that cognitive reappraisal can relieve individuals' negative emotions caused by stress [38,39]. Under the pressure of pregnancy, maternal with high cognitive reappraisal may be more able to adapt and eliminate the adverse effects of stress on negative outcomes.…”