The Mediating Role of Psychological Capital in the Relationship between Positive Emotions and Mental Health

Abstract

Abstract

Healthcare institutions render important services dealing with the health and life of people. However, research to date has found that the healthcare professionals are always surrounded with the elements of stressful, difficult situations, and the episodes of hardship. Since, if unhealthy and anxious personnel are damages to organizations, no phenomenon is more important for employees than the positive emotions and mental health. Positive emotions are often found to be associated with good outcomes and enhanced psychological well- being. However, despite these well-established facts the mechanism of the relationship between the two is less clear. This study explores whether psychological capital (PsyCap) may act as a personal resource mediating the relationship between positive emotions and mental health of healthcare professionals. 240 healthcare professionals completed the survey which includes the measures of positive emotions, PsyCap and mental health. The results indicated that positive emotions predicted increase in both mental health and PsyCap, while PsyCap was having important influence on mental health. PsyCap partially mediated the relationship between positive emotions and mental health of the employees in the healthcare sector. This study recommends that organizations could facilitate more positive emotions and provide PsyCap orientation to employees for improving their mental health and the overall organizational performance.