Examining the Mediator of Emotional Exhaustion and the Moderator of Work Support in the Association Between Person–Job Fit and Mental Health: Evidence from a Nationally Representative Sample of Social Workers in China

• Published in: The British journal of social work 2023-12, Vol.53 (8), p.3882-3902
• Main Authors: Jiang, Shan, Liu, Zewei, Nayilan, Haimiti, Du, Ruoyu, Wang, Lin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Conservation; Developmental delays; Emotions; Fatigue; Mental health; Mental health services; Social work; Social workers; Workplaces
• ISSN: 0045-3102; 1468-263X
• DOI: 10.1093/bjsw/bcad148

Social workers’ mental health issues in China have contextually important meanings, which result from its situation of extensive development and limited resources, and result in more developmental problems in the next stage. To fill research gaps in perspectives, participants and empirical evidence, this study used the Conservation of Resources theory framework and a nationally representative sample to examine a moderated mediation model. A sample of 5,965 Chinese social workers was obtained from the China Social Work Longitudinal Study in 2019. The results indicated that the relation between person–job fit and social workers’ depression was partially mediated by their emotional exhaustion. In addition, the indirect effect was moderated by supervisor support, coworker support and manager support in the workplace. This study provides a resource-based mechanism to understand social workers’ mental health issues in the context of the developing world. Practical implications on improving social workers’ person–job fit, emotional exhaustion and work support were also discussed. Whilst it is well-documented that social workers are confronting considerable workload stress and multi-domain psychological problems, most of the previous studies mainly concentrated on the macro and structural causes, the micro perspective remains largely unknown. Therefore, this study aims to explore the direct and indirect linkage between person–job fit and depression in micro perspective of service consumers by simultaneously examine the mediating role of emotional exhaustion and moderator of work support based on Conservation of Resources model in Chinese social contexts. The results suggested the emotional exhaustion partially mediated the relationship between person–job fit and social workers’ depression. The indirect effect was moderated by work support. The current research well supplemented and extended prior theoretical frameworks and empirical studies; meanwhile, verified the mediating model’s applicability and provides insights for the future planning of social work development.