Association of psychological symptoms with job burnout and occupational stress among coal miners in Xinjiang, China: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

ObjectiveThe study aimed to investigate the influencing factors of psychological symptoms in relation to job burnout and occupational stress among coal miners in Xinjiang, so as to provide data support for enterprises in an effort to help them identify internal psychological risk factors and improve the mental health of coal miners.MethodsA cross-sectional study was carried out. A total of 12 coal mines were selected using the stratified cluster random sampling method and 4,109 coal miners were investigated by means of online electronic questionnaires. The Symptoms Check List-90 (SCL-90), Chinese Maslach Burnout Inventory (CMBI), and Job Demand-Control (JDC) model were respectively used to measure the status of psychological symptoms, job burnout, and occupational stress among coal miners. The mediation analysis was performed through structural equation modeling (SEM) by using Analysis of Moment Structure (AMOS).ResultsThe prevalence of psychological symptoms was higher in the occupational stress group than in the non-occupational stress group, and increased with job burnout (P < 0.05). The multivariate logistic regression analysis results showed that mild (OR = 1.401, 95% CL: 1.165, 1.685), moderate (OR = 2.190, 95% CL: 1.795, 2.672), or severe levels of burnout (OR = 6.102, 95% CL: 3.481, 10.694) and occupational stress (OR = 1.462, 95% CL: 1.272, 1.679) were risk factors for psychological symptoms in coal miners. The results of structural equation modeling indicated that occupational stress (β = 0.11, P = 0.002) and job burnout (β = 0.46, P = 0.002) had significant positive direct effects on psychological symptoms, and job burnout was an intermediate variable between occupational stress and psychological symptoms.ConclusionHigh levels of job burnout and occupational stress were risk factors for psychological symptoms. Both occupational stress and job burnout had direct effects on psychological symptoms, and occupational stress could also have an indirect effect on coal miners' psychological symptoms through the intermediate variable of job burnout.

How Do COVID-19 Risk, Life-Safety Risk, Job Insecurity, and Work–Family Conflict Affect Miner Performance? Health-Anxiety and Job-Anxiety Perspectives

“…For miners, occupational risk hinders job performance and increases psychological problems, such as anxiety [ 96 ]. Problems related to work execution, such as dangerous working environments and high job complexity, continuously plague miners’ job performance [ 97 ]. Therefore, these research findings support H2a, H2b, and H2c.…”

The interaction of occupational stress and job burnout on depressive symptoms in railway workers in Fuzhou city

“…The results of this study found that the incidence of occupational stress among railway workers in Fuzhou City was 50.58%, which was lower than that of employees of medical staff (59.4%) [ 35 ] and higher than coal miners (38.1%) [ 36 ]. The higher occupational stress scores in the age < 25 years and working experience < 5 years group are consistent with the findings of Ines et al [ 37 ].…”

“…It may since this group of workers are new to their jobs, have heavy workloads, are inexperienced, and encounter more difficulties and challenges [ 38 ]. The incidence of job burnout among participants was 93.47%, which was higher than that of caregivers (67.37%) [ 39 ] and coal miners (77.74%) [ 36 ]. The higher burnout scores in the age group of 35–45 years old and 10–20 years of service are consistent with the results of Xian et al [ 40 ], which may related to the fact that this group of workers has been in the job for a long time, but their career development is different from what was envisioned, and their professional enthusiasm diminishes due to a lower sense of professional identity.…”