The protective effect of grit on clinical nurses’ occupational psychological distress: Mediating and suppressing effects of Hope

Abstract

As at a high-risk group of psychological distress, nurses generally experience varying degrees of stress, anxiety, and depression. This paper identifies the positive factors that may negatively regulate the psychological pain of clinical nurses and their mechanisms of action, providing reliable references for clinical nurse support management. The effects and mechanisms of hope and the two components of grit consistency of interest and perseverance of effort) on clinical nurses’ psychological distress (depression, anxiety, and stress) were observed in this study. A total of 635 Chinese clinical nurses (90.4% female) completed an anonymous questionnaire for the survey. As expected, hope, consistency of interest, and perseverance of effort were negatively correlated with the three indicators of psychological distress (r = −0.21 ~ −0.38, p < 0.01). Path analysis results showed that hope significantly mediated the negative effect of consistency of interest on psychological distress, with an effect of 12.96%. Hope also covered up the perseverance of effort on psychological distress, the effect of 110.63%. In the influence of consistency of interest and perseverance of effort on psychological distress, hope contributed a vital mediating. Based on these results, it can be concluded that grit and hope have protective effects on psychological distress in clinical nurses. Significantly increasing the level of hope or grit may effectively prevent and reduce psychological distress in clinical nurses.

The influence of grit on nurse job satisfaction: Mediating effects of perceived stress and moderating effects of optimism

“…Grit is negatively related to negative emotions ( Clement et al, 2020 ; Lee M., 2022 ), and individuals who persevere tend to have more positive emotions ( Lee M., 2022 ), stronger psychological resilience ( Tang et al, 2022 ), are more likely to receive social support, and have a higher level of hope ( Yang and Wu, 2021 ). Nurses with low grit have been found to have higher stress levels and more mental health problems, such as anxiety, depression, and other harmful emotions ( Peng and Wu, 2022 ).…”

Association between Grit and depressive symptoms at the timing of job start among medical residents during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan: a cross-sectional study

“…A previous study in China reported that perseverance of effort and consistency of interest have different effects on mental health [ 39 ]. Perseverance of effort may be more associated with academic engagement and subjective well-being [ 40 ], while the consistency of interest may buffer psychological distress [ 41 , 42 ]. Additionally, the previous report showed that authentic pride mediates the association between perseverance of effort and depressive symptom [ 43 ].…”