Emotion Regulation and Mental Wellbeing as Predictors of Workplace Stress in Mental Health Professionals

Abstract

Although the profession of mental health professionals is a challenging one with particular aspects that are more stressful than others. By utilizing different emotion regulation techniques mental health professionals may find this helpful to cope with their daily work stress. The purpose of this study is to investigate the emotion regulation, mental well-being, and its effect on workplace stress. It aimed to find the relationship between emotion regulation, mental well-being, and workplace stress in mental health professionals. A correlation research design with a purposive sampling strategy was utilized based on the characteristics of the population. The sample consisted of 170 mental health professionals, with a mean age of (M = 27.60, SD = 6.17) who were approached from different private and government hospitals in Lahore. Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (Gross & John, 2003), Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (Tennant et al., 2007), and Workplace Stress Scale were used to collect the data. Descriptive and psychometric analyses were conducted to check descriptive statistics and the reliability of scales. All scales showed good reliability to carry out further analysis. A Pearson product-moment correlation analysis showed that cognitive reappraisal and mental well-being have a significant negative relationship with workplace stress. Multiple hierarchical regression analysis depicted that cognitive reappraisal and mental well-being are significant negative predictors of workplace stress after controlling for demographics in block 1. These findings highlight the importance of effective techniques of emotion regulation i.e. cognitive reappraisal for increasing mental well-being by reducing workplace stress in mental health professionals at their workplace.