The Relationship Among Occupational Stress, Coping Styles, and Mental Health of Pediatric Nurses in China: A Combination Study with the Application of the Spearman Correlation and Structural Equation Modelling

Background: Pediatric nurses experience a wide rang of stressful events at work every day, which can trigger a lot of emotional responses. The objectives of this study were mainly to assess occupational stress, coping styles and mental health among pediatric nurses,and to explore the potential interrelationships of these factors. Methods A total of 381 pediatric nurses from Chongqing, China were recruited in this cross-sectional study. We performed this study based on a questionnaire survey that contained the Chinese Perceived Stress Scale (CPSS), Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire and Symptom-Checklist 90(SCL-90). Results The prevalence of healthy risk stress(HRS) in pediatric nurses was 54.3%, and nurses with different genders and professional titles have different occupational stress level. The result of the positive screen rates of mental healthy problems, by descending order, they were: obsessive-compulsive symptoms (52.0%), depression (33.1%), hostility (32.8%), and so on. Wilcoxon signed rank tests analysis showed pediatric nurses had both significantly higher risk mental health problems compared to general population and national nurse population. And with the application of the Spearman correlation analysis and Structural Equation Modelling were revealed a significant relationship among occupational stress, coping style and mental health. The positive coping style had a negative direct predictive effect on occupational stress( β=-0.499,P < 0.01 ) and mental health( β=-0.115,P < 0.01 ), negative coping styles had positive predictive effect on occupational stress( β = 0.185,P < 0.01 ) and mental health( β = 0.205,P < 0.01 ). Occupational stress had significant impact on mental health( 0.416,P < 0.01 ), and it was played a part of mediating effect between coping style and mental health. Conclusion A high prevalence of occupational stress and worse mental health among pediatric nurses, and occupational stress and coping styles were important predictors for their mental health. In order to improve their mental health level, more attention should be paid and modifications should be made to the occupational stress and coping style for this population.