Factors influencing the thriving of emergency department nurses in China

INTRODUCTION

Thriving is a positive feeling arising from nurses' work and is increasingly valued by managers. Given their demanding workloads and various duties, it is necessary to research the determinants of ED nurses' thriving. This study aimed to investigate the factors influencing thriving and the mechanisms of interaction between the factors among ED nurses.

METHODS

380 ED nurses from six tertiary hospitals in Shandong Province, China, participated in this cross-sectional study. The instruments used were the General Information Questionnaire, Challenge-Hindrance Stressors Scale, Psychological Detachment Scale, and Thriving at Work Scale. Data analysis methods included univariate analysis, Pearson correlation, PROCESS 4.0, and hierarchical multiple regression.

RESULTS

Weekly working hours affected nurses' thriving. Challenge stressors and psychological detachment were positively related to thriving. Hindrance stressors had a negative link with thriving. Psychological detachment suppressed the relationship between challenge stressors and thriving; however, it mediated the relationship between hindrance stressors and thriving.

CONCLUSION

Challenge-hindrance stressors and psychological detachment are significant elements influencing ED nurses' thriving. Nursing administrators should help ED nurses properly address stressors with different attributes and adopt appropriate strategies to improve nurses' thriving by enhancing psychological detachment.

Boundary violations and university teachers' well-being during mandatory telework: Recovery's role and gender differences

BACKGROUND

This study aimed to explore the role of psychological detachment from work in the relationship of boundary violations and flourishing, as well as gender differences among university teachers during mandatory telework. We developed and tested a moderate mediation model where psychological detachment was the explanatory mechanism of the relationship between boundary violations with flourishing and using gender as the moderating variable.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted with a sample of 921 Brazilian university teachers (mean age 44 years, 681 women and 240 men) during mandatory telework. Multigroup analysis and moderate mediation were performed using Mplus 7.2.

RESULTS

Psychological detachment mediated the relationship between boundary violations (in both directions) and flourishing and work-to-family violations were more harmful to women' recovery instead family-to-work violations were more harmful to men' recovery, among university teachers during mandatory telework.

CONCLUSION

By focusing on boundary violations in the context of mandatory telework, the study sheds light on the impact of blurred boundaries between work and personal life. This contributes both literature on work-life balance and literature recovery. Moreover, it helps to understand a crisis setting of remote work. Further, the study's findings regarding gender differences highlight how men and women may experience and cope with boundary violations differently during mandatory telework, supporting future specific interventions across genders.

Physical activity improves stress load, recovery, and academic performance-related parameters among university students: a longitudinal study on daily level

BACKGROUND

Physical activity has been proven to be beneficial for physical and psychological health as well as for academic achievement. However, especially university students are insufficiently physically active because of difficulties in time management regarding study, work, and social demands. As they are at a crucial life stage, it is of interest how physical activity affects university students' stress load and recovery as well as their academic performance.

METHODS

Student´s behavior during home studying in times of COVID-19 was examined longitudinally on a daily basis during a ten-day study period (N = 57, aged M = 23.5 years, SD = 2.8, studying between the 1st to 13th semester (M = 5.8, SD = 4.1)). Two-level regression models were conducted to predict daily variations in stress load, recovery and perceived academic performance depending on leisure-time physical activity and short physical activity breaks during studying periods. Parameters of the individual home studying behavior were also taken into account as covariates.

RESULTS

While physical activity breaks only positively affect stress load (functional stress b = 0.032, p < 0.01) and perceived academic performance (b = 0.121, p < 0.001), leisure-time physical activity affects parameters of stress load (functional stress: b = 0.003, p < 0.001, dysfunctional stress: b = -0.002, p < 0.01), recovery experience (b = -0.003, p < 0.001) and perceived academic performance (b = 0.012, p < 0.001). Home study behavior regarding the number of breaks and longest stretch of time also shows associations with recovery experience and perceived academic performance.

CONCLUSIONS

Study results confirm the importance of different physical activities for university students` stress load, recovery experience and perceived academic performance in home studying periods. Universities should promote physical activity to keep their students healthy and capable of performing well in academic study: On the one hand, they can offer opportunities to be physically active in leisure time. On the other hand, they can support physical activity breaks during the learning process and in the immediate location of study.

Relationship between psychological detachment from work and depressive symptoms: indirect role of emotional exhaustion and moderating role of self-compassion

The importance of psychological detachment during nonwork time has been emphasized, and its effect on depressive symptoms has been identified. However, the mechanism underlying this association remains to be elucidated. This study was conducted to identify the indirect role of emotional exhaustion in the association between psychological detachment and depressive symptoms and the moderating role of self-compassion in the relationship between emotional exhaustion and depressive symptoms on the basis of the recovery-engagement-exhaustion model and emotion regulation theory. Through an online survey, relevant data were collected from 727 university teachers (mean age, 37.65 ± 7.77 years; 38.5% men). Indirect and moderation effect were analyzed through structural equation modeling (Mplus). Psychological detachment was found to be associated with depressive symptoms through emotional exhaustion. Self-compassion moderated the association between emotional exhaustion and depressive symptoms. The association between emotional exhaustion and depressive symptoms was weaker among university teachers with high levels of self-compassion than among those with low levels of self-compassion. This study improves our understanding of the association between psychological detachment and depressive symptoms by identifying the emotional pathway and protective function of self-compassion. Interventions for improving mental health in work context should be designed considering psychological detachment and self-compassion to deal with work-induced emotional strain.

Why and when surface acting interferes with family functioning: The role of psychological detachment and family-supportive supervisor behaviors

Emotional labor is a well-documented work stressor that may have important implications for preschool teachers. Integrating conservation of resources theory and the stressors-detachment model, this study seeks to develop a moderated mediation model in which two forms of surface acting (i.e., faked positive emotions and suppressed negative emotions) would be indirectly associated with poor family functioning via psychological detachment, and the indirect association would be moderated by family-supportive supervisor behaviors. This study was investigated among 411 preschool teachers in Chinese society. Results revealed that both faked positive emotions and suppressed negative emotions led to impaired family functioning, and lack of psychological detachment mediated the detrimental effects. The moderated mediation analyses further showed that the mediated path became weaker for preschool teachers received more family-supportive supervisor behaviors. These findings deepen our practical and theoretical understanding of why and when surface acting impacts preschool teachers' family lives.

Family boundary permeability, difficulties detaching from work, and work-home conflict: what comes first during the lockdown?

The challenges posed by the urgent demand of the lockdown to start working from home and successfully manage work-family interface have also triggered the increased boundary permeability, difficulties detaching from work and work-home conflict. However, little is known about the temporal dynamics between these challenges, therefore more research-based data could facilitate not only a better understanding of the risks for employee well-being but also finding the best practices to counteract work-home conflict when working from home. Our study aimed to examine the direction of cross-lagged effects among family boundary permeability, psychological detachment, and work-home conflict in the context of the pandemic. In all, 375 employees participated in a two-wave study. We used structural equation modelling to test and compare several models that were deployed for describing the hypothesised temporal relationships. The results of our study revealed that psychological detachment predicted boundary permeability and work-family conflict four months later, but not vice versa. Thus, the ability to detach from work should not be considered a consequence of low family boundary permeability. Instead, it seems to serve as a strategy to keep work and non-work spheres separate, eventually, to avoid work-family conflict. As a result, practical efforts should focus on helping remote workers to detach from work when they are not working rather than on the prevention of boundary-blurring. Finally, the discussion of the results of the impact of both, the context of the pandemic and the nature of the mandatory transition to working from home is presented and practical guidelines on how organisations may help employees better manage the work and home interface in telework settings are offered.

Coping with pandemics using social network sites: A psychological detachment perspective to COVID-19 stressors

Prior research has often portrayed information technology (IT) as a stressor. In this paper, we propose and demonstrate that IT can also be an effective means of coping with life stressors, including those induced by pandemics such as COVID-19. We thus deviate from the common IT-as-a-stressor perspective and adopt an IT-as-a-coping-mechanism viewpoint. To this end, we apply the stressor-detachment model from organisational psychology to the use of social network sites (SNSs) in coping with stressors wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic. We examine psychological well-being as our dependant variable and introduce psychological detachment through SNS use as a mediator and moderator of the associations between psychological well-being and two COVID-19 stressors: work-family conflict and perceived isolation. We used structural equation modelling and tested this model with survey data collected from 398 professionals who were in lockdown and working from home during the pandemic. The results indicated that psychological detachment through SNS uses increased psychological well-being and that heightened work-family conflict motivated this detachment strategy. In contrast, consistent with helplessness and motivation-opportunity theories, perceived isolation as a stressor did not influence psychological detachment through SNS use. While perceived isolation directly reduced individual well-being, the effect of work-family conflict on well-being was contingent upon users' levels of psychological detachment through SNS use. These findings suggest that while psychological detachment through SNS use is an effective means of improving one's well-being, it can be positively or negatively affected by stressors. Our study contributes to research on technology-mediated strategies for coping with stress and the psychosocial implications of global pandemics.

Keeping Up With Work Email After Hours and Employee Wellbeing: Examining Relationships During and Prior to the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many employees to work from home (WFH) and more heavily rely on technology to conduct work, calling for further empirical investigation into the effects of work-related technology and the WFH environment on employee wellbeing. This study investigates the relationship between work-related email (WRE) use during nonwork hours and emotional exhaustion in a sample of U.S. employees required to WFH during the pandemic, with results suggesting that psychological detachment and work-family conflict (WFC) play important roles in this relationship. Furthermore, telepressure (i.e., the preoccupation/urge to promptly respond to WRE) moderated the relationship between WRE use and psychological detachment, which offers insight into the psychological processes behind WRE use after hours. Direct and indirect effects between WRE use and emotional exhaustion were also compared to effects generated using data from an independent sample of pre-pandemic in-office employees to determine whether the pandemic context has amplified the observed relationships. Results show that all direct/indirect effects, except for the effect of WRE use after hours on psychological detachment, were stronger in those required to WFH. These findings shed light onto the similarities and differences between the current and pre-pandemic work landscapes and have important implications for lawmakers, organizational leaders, and employees.

Difficulties detaching psychologically from work among German teachers: prevalence, risk factors and health outcomes within a cross-sectional and national representative employee survey

Background

Teachers often face high job demands that might elicit strong stress responses. This can increase risks of adverse strain outcomes such as mental and physical health impairment. Psychological detachment has been suggested as a recovery experience that counteracts the stressor-strain relationship. However, psychological detachment is often difficult when job demands are high. The aims of this study were, first, to gain information on the prevalence of difficulties detaching from work among German teachers, second, to identify potential person-related/individual (i.e., age, sex), occupational (e.g., tenure, leadership position), and work-related (e.g., overload, cognitive, emotional, and physical demands) risk factors and, third, to examine relationships with mental and physical health impairment and sickness absence.

Methods

A secondary analysis of cross-sectional data from a national and representative survey of German employees was conducted (BIBB/BAuA Employment Survey 2018). For the analyses data from two groups of teachers (primary/secondary school teachers: n = 901, other teachers: n = 641) were used and compared with prevalence estimates of employees from other occupations (n = 16,266).

Results

Primary/secondary school teachers (41.5%) and other teachers (30.3%) reported more difficulties detaching from work than employees from other occupations (21.3%). Emotional demands and deadline/performance pressure were the most severe risk factors in both groups of teachers. In the group of primary/secondary school teachers multitasking demands were further risk factors for difficulties to detach from work whereas support from colleagues reduced risks. In both groups of teachers detachment difficulties can be linked to an increase in psychosomatic and musculoskeletal complaints and, additionally, to a higher risk of sickness absence among primary/secondary school teachers.

Conclusions

Difficulties detaching from work are highly prevalent among German teachers. In order to protect them from related risks of health impairment, interventions are needed which aim at optimizing job demands and contextual resources (i.e., work-directed approaches) or at improving coping strategies (i.e., person-directed approaches).

Promoting recovery in daily life: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND

Work-related stress shows steadily increasing prevalence rates and has tangible consequences for individual workers, their organizations, and society as a whole. One mechanism that may help offset the negative outcomes of work-related stress on employees' well-being is recovery. Recovery refers to the experience of unwinding from one's job when not at work. However, employees who experience high levels of work-related stress and are thus particularly in need of recovery tend to struggle to switch-off. Due to the detrimental effects of this prolonged and sustained mental representation of job stressors, interventions promoting recovery may contribute to improvements in employees' mental health.

METHODS

In this randomized, waitlist controlled trial, we will investigate the effectiveness of two 6-week online training programs (cognitive behavioral and mindfulness-based). The sample will include employees working at least part-time during regular work hours. Besides the pre-post-follow-up assessments, the trial will include measurement bursts with the goal of examining the underlying mechanisms. We expect that both interventions will reduce work-related perseverative thinking (PT) compared with the waitlist control groups (primary outcome). Also, we expect that both interventions will result in similar improvements, but the underlying mechanisms will differ (process outcomes). In the cognitive-behavioral intervention group, we expect that the main mechanism responsible for lower PT levels will be an increase in recovery experiences across time. In the mindfulness-based group, we expect that the main mechanism responsible for lower PT levels will be an increase in facets of mindfulness across time.

DISCUSSION

In the present study, we will investigate mechanisms underlying assumed changes in work-related PT in great detail. Besides evaluating the overall effectiveness of the two interventions in terms of pre-post-follow-up changes, we will look at the underlying processes at different levels-that is, within days, within weeks, across weeks, and between individuals. Accordingly, our study will offer a fine-grained approach to investigating potential determinants, mediators, and moderators of the processes that may, in the end, be responsible for work-related strain. From a public health perspective, if effective, the online training programs may offer valuable, low-threshold, and low-intensity interventions for a broad range of occupations. Trial registration German Clinical Trials Registration: DRKS00024933. Registered prospectively 7 April 2021. https://www.drks.de/drks_web/navigate.do?navigationId=trial.HTML&TRIAL_ID=DRKS00024933.

Boundarylessness and sleep quality among virtual team members - a pilot study from Germany

Background

In the course of globalisation and digitalisation, new ways of work are becoming increasingly prevalent. To remain competitive as an organisation, cooperation across time, place, and organisational boundaries is becoming necessary. Virtual teamwork offers these advantages, but can also be both, an opportunity and a burden, for employees. This pilot study aims to gain first insights into job demands and resources in virtual teamwork to provide a basis for further research from which appropriate health promotion and prevention measures can be derived.

Methods

In this pilot study, an online questionnaire was used to examine the relationship between boundarylessness as a job demand, psychological detachment as a personal resource, as well as perceived stress and sleep quality as health outcomes among 46 virtual team members from Germany. Data collection lasted from October 2019 to January 2020. Validated scales were used for the questionnaire, except for virtuality. Due to insufficient operationalisation to date, a virtuality scale was developed based on the current state of research. The data were analysed with ordinal logistic regression analyses and median split t-tests.

Results

The results indicate that perceived stress impaired sleep quality of virtual team members in this sample. In contrast, successful psychological detachment from work was positively related to sleep quality. A higher degree of virtuality coincided with higher levels of boundarylessness. Virtual team members with leadership responsibility showed higher levels of psychological detachment.

Conclusion

The present pilot study breaks ground and provides initial insights into the relationship between virtual teamwork and employee health in the German context. Further research, particularly on job demands in virtual teamwork, is needed to derive concrete health promotion and prevention measures.

The role of psychological detachment in burnout and depression: A longitudinal study of Malaysian workers

The current study aimed to examine the role of psychological detachment in the relationship between working conditions and burnout and depression. First, the study proposed that job demands would increase burnout after four months but not depression. Second, it proposed that psychological detachment would moderate the impact of job demands and job resources on burnout and depression. Third, it was proposed that the interaction between job demands, job resources and psychological detachment would predict burnout and depression. The longitudinal study design involved 345 workers (at both Time 1 and Time 2). The hierarchical regression analysis showed that increasing psychological detachment reduced the negative relationship between physical demands and depression four months later. In contrast, high psychological detachment increased the negative association between emotional resources and burnout, but not between emotional resources and depression. Overall, this study, in its discovery of the impact of working conditions on psychological health, has made a new contribution to psychological detachment studies by using different sub-constructs of job demands and job resources (i.e., emotional and physical) with four-month gaps, as previous studies did not address the impact within this time frame.