Predicting Nurses’ Mental Health Based on Their Job Burnout, Perceived Social Support, and Psychological Hardiness

Abstract

Background: Nurses experience considerable stress due to their difficult working conditions. Experiencing stress over a long period of time can influence mental health. Objectives: This study aimed at predicting nurses’ mental health based on their job burnout, perceived social support, and psychological hardiness. Methods: This correlational study was done during year 2015 on 400 individuals, who worked in public hospitals located in Tehran, Iran. All nurses completed Maslach and Jackson’s job Burnout inventory, Zimet et al.’s Perceived Social support scale, Kobasa’s psychological hardiness inventory, and Goldberg and Hillier’s general health questionnaire. The data were analyzed using the SPSS software (v. 19.0) through running the Pearson correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis at a significance level of less than 0.01. Results: Nurses’ mental health was positively correlated with their job burnout (r = 0.37) and negatively with their perceived social support (r = -0.56) and psychological hardiness (r = -0.53; P < 0.01). Job burnout, perceived social support and psychological hardiness explained 54.9% of the total variance of nurses’ mental health (R2 = 0.549). Conclusions: Given the significant role of job burnout, perceived social support and psychological hardiness in predicting nurses’ mental health, manipulating these variables can help improve nurses’ mental health.