Burnout, negative emotions, and wellbeing among social workers in China after community lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic: Mediating roles of trait mindfulness

The relationships between parental attachment, peer attachment, automatic thoughts, and mindfulness skills among Iranian adolescents

This study aimed to examine the relationship between parental attachment, peer attachments, and automatic thoughts with adolescent mindfulness skills in Iranian adolescents, drawing on internal working models and social cognitive theory. The data was collected from a sample of Iranian adolescents in Tehran using standardized measurement instruments previously developed by researchers. The collected data was analyzed using both simple and multiple regression analyses. The results revealed a positive and significant association between parental attachment and peer attachments with adolescent mindfulness skills. Conversely, automatic thoughts were found to have a negative impact on adolescent mindfulness skills. These findings suggest that strengthening attachments can contribute to the enhancement of mindfulness skills in adolescents, while addressing automatic thoughts is crucial in preventing the erosion of mindfulness skills. Consequently, experts can design interventions that focus on improving attachments and addressing automatic thoughts to promote adolescent mindfulness skills.

The impact of work-family conflict on job burnout among community social workers in China

In China, for community social workers, work-family conflict has become a common phenomenon that may harm their well-being. Based on the analysis of a survey of community social workers in four cities in China, this study demonstrated that community workers' work-family conflict significantly affects burnout, role overload mediates the relation between work-family conflict and burnout, and cognitive crafting negatively moderates the relation between role overload and burnout. The conclusions validate the job crafting theory and enrich the research on job burnout under the JD-R model. The practical significance of the study is that on the one hand, community and individual workers can effectively alleviate burnout by clarifying their roles. On the other hand, it also reminds managers that they should pay attention to the physical and mental health of social workers to enable them to develop healthily.

Mental health risk in human services work across Europe: the predictive role of employment in various sectors

Background

Human services occupations are highly exposed to mental health risks, thus psychosocial risk management is critical to assure healthy and safe working conditions, promote mental health and commitment, and prevent fluctuation of employees. However, still little is known about prominent psychosocial risk factors in various human services work.

Objectives

To identify prominent psychosocial risk factors of mental health in human services occupations and to explore their individual and organizational correlates in 19 European countries.

Methods

Cross-sectional survey using data from the European Union's Labor Force Survey among 379,759 active employees in 19 European countries. First, a descriptive analysis was carried out to establish the prevalence of mental health risk factors. Then sociodemographic correlates of occupational mental health risk factors were assessed by means of Pearson's chi-squared test. Finally, correlations were explored between perceived psychosocial risk factors and human vs. non-human services occupations, as well as contextual variables by applying multilevel logistic and multinomial regression analyses.

Results

The prevalence of mental health risk was 45.1%. Work overload (19.9%), dealing with difficult clients (10.2%), and job insecurity (5.8%) were the most prevalent mental health risk factors among European employees. We identified significant differences in the prevalence of mental health risks and specific mental health risk factors among employees according to sex, age, and educational attainment. The prevalence of mental health risks was significantly higher among women (47.0%, man: 43.3%), workers aged 35-50 years (47.5%, >50: 44.4%, <35: 42.3%), and those with the higher level of education (51.9%, secondary with diploma: 42.6%, elementary: 36.2%). Employees working in healthcare in Northern Europe were most likely to be exposed to mental health risks (AME = 0.717). Working in healthcare in Northern Europe was the strongest predictor of reporting work overload (AME = 0.381). Working in social care in Central and Eastern Europe was the strongest predictor of reporting dealing with difficult clients (AME = 0.303) as the most prevalent mental health risk factor.

Conclusion

Understanding the impact of employment in specific human services occupations on mental health and its specific occupational stressors are vital to improve mental health and safety at work and maintain high quality services.

"Internet+" pharmacy in psychiatric hospital amid COVID-19 and post-pandemic period: analysis and development

Objective

This study aims to explore the differences in "Internet+" pharmacy prescriptions in psychiatric hospitals before and after the outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. It also seeks to examine changes in patient healthcare behaviors in the post-pandemic era and to identify the potential role of "Internet+" pharmacy in improving the current healthcare system.

Methods

Prescriptions from the "Internet+" pharmacy at The Affiliated Mental Health Center of Jiangnan University, collected between December 1, 2021, and November 30, 2023, were analyzed. The period was divided into four stages based on the COVID-19 pandemic's progression in China. Descriptive statistical analysis was conducted on various prescription-related factors, including patient information, prescription type, disease distribution, medication type, frequency of medication use, pharmacist review time, and instances of irrational medication use.

Results

A total of 2914 prescriptions were collected. The male-to-female ratio (MFR) varied significantly across different stages of the epidemic. In the pre-pandemic II period, females represented the highest proportion (66.10%, MFR 0.51), and individuals aged 18-39 made up the majority (56.70%) across all stages. The proportion of psycho-counseling prescriptions was highest in the pre-pandemic II period (76.74%), while the total number of psycho-counseling prescriptions was greatest during the epidemic, with 798 cases. A total of 38 diseases were involved, with depression accounting for the largest proportion (38.98%) at each stage, followed by the highest usage of antidepressants (49.60%). A total of 85 types of medications were used, with quetiapine representing the highest proportion before the epidemic (16.56%, 10.92%), while escitalopram accounted for the highest proportion after the epidemic (10.98%). The majority of patients (70.87%) took medication once daily. 42.23% of pharmacist review times were ≤1 minute, and the mean review time was longest in the post-pandemic period (6175.1 seconds). During the pre-pandemic and epidemic periods, the most common pharmacist review time occurred between 12:00 and 17:59 (41.46%), while in the post-pandemic period, the most common review time was between 18:00 and 23:59 (36.70%). The initial rate of irrational prescriptions was 37.85%. After manual review by pharmacists, the irrational prescription rate of Internet prescriptions decreased to 1.13%.

Conclusion

The development of "Internet+" pharmacy has effectively addressed the medical needs of the relevant population and played a crucial role in combating the COVID-19 pandemic. Future advancements should focus on optimizing the allocation of healthcare resources and expanding innovative pharmacy services to broaden the developmental pathways of the 'Internet+' pharmacy ecosystem.

Intolerance of uncertainty and negative emotions among high school art students during COVID-19 pandemic: a moderated mediation analysis

Objectives

A number of high school art students experience negative emotions during their preparation for the art college entrance examination, characterized by worries and fear of uncertainty. Therefore, how individual difference factors, such as intolerance of uncertainty, affect the negative emotions of students needs to be examined. Inspired by the integrative model of uncertainty tolerance, the current study seeks to explain the association between intolerance of uncertainty and negative emotions by testing the potential mediating role of psychological capital and the moderating role of family functioning.

Patients and methods

A total of 919 Chinese high school art students (Mage = 18.50 years, range = 16-22) participated from November 2022 to December 2022. Convenience sampling strategies were used. The participants were asked to complete the measures of intolerance of uncertainty scale, psychological capital questionnaire, depression anxiety stress scale, and family adaptability and cohesion evaluation scale. The data were analyzed using Pearson's r correlations and moderated mediation analysis.

Results

Results showed that intolerance of uncertainty was positively associated with negative emotions but negatively associated with psychological capital, which in turn, was negatively associated with negative emotions. Psychological capital mediated the indirect link of intolerance of uncertainty with negative emotions. Family functioning buffered the impact of psychological capital on negative emotions.

Conclusion

This study can enhance our understanding of the intolerance of uncertainty on negative emotions and provide insights on interventions for high school art students' negative emotions for educators. The interventions targeting intolerance of uncertainty, psychological capital and family functioning may be beneficial in reducing the effect of intolerance of uncertainty on negative emotions faced by high school art students.

Dynamic assessment of community resilience in China: empirical surveys from three provinces

Background

Strengthening the construction of community resilience and reducing disaster impacts are on the agenda of the Chinese government. The COVID-19 pandemic could alter the existing community resilience. This study aims to explore the dynamic change trends of community resilience in China and analyze the primary influencing factors of community resilience in the context of COVID-19, as well as construct Community Resilience Governance System Framework in China.

Methods

A community advancing resilience toolkit (CART) was used to conduct surveys in Guangdong, Sichuan, and Heilongjiang provinces in China in 2015 and 2022, with community resilience data and information on disaster risk awareness and disaster risk reduction behaviors of residents collected. The qualitative (in-depth interview) data from staffs of government agencies and communities (n = 15) were pooled to explore Community Resilience Governance System Framework in China. Descriptive statistics analysis and t-tests were used to investigate the dynamic development of community resilience in China. Hierarchical regression analysis was performed to explore the main influencing factors of residential community resilience with such socio-demographic characteristics as gender and age being controlled.

Results

The results indicate that community resilience in China has improved significantly, presenting differences with statistical significance (p < 0.05). In 2015, connection and caring achieved the highest score, while disaster management achieved the highest score in 2022, with resources and transformative potential ranking the lowest in their scores in both years. Generally, residents presented a high awareness of disaster risks. However, only a small proportion of residents that were surveyed had participated in any "community-organized epidemic prevention and control voluntary services" (34.9%). Analysis shows that core influencing factors of community resilience include: High sensitivity towards major epidemic-related information, particular attention to various kinds of epidemic prevention and control warning messages, participation in epidemic prevention and control voluntary services, and formulation of epidemic response plans. In this study, we have constructed Community Resilience Governance System Framework in China, which included community resilience risk awareness, community resilience governance bodies, community resilience mechanisms and systems.

Conclusion

During the pandemic, community resilience in China underwent significant changes. However, community capital was, is, and will be a weak link to community resilience. It is suggested that multi-stages assessments of dynamic change trends of community resilience should be further performed to analyze acting points and core influencing factors of community resilience establishment at different stages.

Prevalence and associated factors of depressive and anxiety symptoms among healthcare workers in the post-pandemic era of COVID-19 at a tertiary hospital in Shenzhen, China: A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

Healthcare workers were at high risk of psychological problems during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it remains not well-investigated in the post-pandemic era of COVID-19, with regular epidemic prevention and control embedded in burdened healthcare work. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence and potential risk factors of the symptoms of depression and anxiety among healthcare workers at a tertiary hospital in Shenzhen.

METHOD

Our cross-sectional study was conducted among 21- to 64-year-old healthcare workers in December 2021 at a tertiary hospital in Shenzhen, using a simple random sampling strategy. A wide range of socio-demographic characteristics, individual information, and psychological condition of the subjects were extracted. Healthcare workers' psychological conditions were tested with the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CESD-10), General Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7), Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), Work-Family Conflict Scale (WFCS), 10-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC-10), and 17-item of Maslach's Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS-17). Data were collected based on these questionnaires. Descriptive statistics were used to assess the difference between healthcare workers with depressive and anxiety symptoms among different groups. Hierarchical logistic regression analyses were conducted to investigate the association between focused variables and mental health outcomes.

RESULTS

A total of 245 healthcare workers were enrolled. The proportion of depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms and their co-occurrence were 34.7, 59.6, and 33.1%, respectively. Logistic regression showed that for the three outcomes, no history of receiving psychological help and self-rated good or higher health were protective factors, whereas more severe insomnia and job burnout were risk factors. Junior or lower job title and higher psychological resilience were related to a lower prevalence of depressive symptoms, while relatively longer working hours and larger work-family conflict were positively associated with the anxiety symptoms. Psychological resilience was inversely associated with the co-occurrence of depressive and anxiety symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study revealed a high proportion of psychological problems and proved that several similar factors which were significant during the pandemic were also associated with the symptoms of depression and anxiety among healthcare workers in the post-pandemic era of COVID-19. These results provide scientific evidence for psychological interventions for healthcare workers.