Predictors of nurses′ job burnout and depressive symptoms: A dominance analysis of diverse emotion regulation strategies

Abstract

Objective To examine the relative importance of four emotion regulation strategies (i.e. cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression, rumination and mindfulness) in explaining job burnout and depression of nurses. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study with questionnaires for 1 037 nurses from two general hospitals. Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Service Survey (MBI-HSS), the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ), Ruminative Responses Scale (RRS) and Short Inventory of Mindfulness Capability (SIM-C) were assessed. Results Dominance analysis revealed that in terms of job burnout, rumination, cognitive reappraisal and mindfulness could explain 41.38% (0.132/0.319), 30.09% (0.096/0.319) and 28.53% (0.091/0.319). In terms of depression, rumination and mindfulness could explain 68.6% (0.362/0.528)and 24.43% (0.129/0.528). Conclusions Rumination and mindfulness were important predictors of job burnout and depression of nurses. This study indicates that reducing ruminative responses and enhancement of mindfulness are the important approach to reduce nurses′ job burnout and depression. Key words: Nurses; Emotion regulation strategy; Dominance analysis; Job burnout; Depression