Positive functioning at work during COVID‐19: Posttraumatic growth, resilience, and emotional exhaustion in Chinese frontline healthcare workers

Research on traumatic events often emphasizes the importance of posttraumatic growth (PTG) and resilience, yet few studies have explored their trends and their relationship throughout the progression of traumatic events. This paper explores the longitudinal relationship between resilience and PTG, a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied Psychology: Health and Well‐Being 2021-11, Vol.13 (4), p.871-886
Main Authors: Lyu, Yizhi, Yu, Yongju, Chen, Shuquan, Lu, Shuang, Ni, Shiguang
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Burnout
COVID-19
Fatigue
Health care
healthcare worker
Medical personnel
Original
Pandemics
Polls & surveys
Post-traumatic growth
posttraumatic growth
Reinforcement
Resilience
Traumatic life events
Workers
Workplaces
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Summary:Research on traumatic events often emphasizes the importance of posttraumatic growth (PTG) and resilience, yet few studies have explored their trends and their relationship throughout the progression of traumatic events. This paper explores the longitudinal relationship between resilience and PTG, as well as the role of job burnout in this relationship, among frontline healthcare workers during the COVID‐19 pandemic, who have been exposed to high‐risk work environments over extraordinarily long workdays. In Study 1, 134 Chinese frontline healthcare workers completed a three‐wave survey (Time 1, Time 2, and Time 3) in February–May 2020. In Study 2, 401 frontline healthcare workers completed a cross‐sectional survey. The cross‐lagged analysis suggested that resilience at Time 1 positively predicted PTG at Time 2, which in turn positively predicted resilience at Time 3. PTG at Time 1 also positively predicted resilience at Time 2 (Study 1). However, job burnout was negatively related to both resilience and PTG; in particular, emotional exhaustion moderated the link between PTG and resilience (Study 2). Our findings support a cycle of reinforcement between resilience and PTG over time. The positive effect of PTG on resilience, however, is undermined by emotional exhaustion. Implications for future intervention research and workplace support are discussed.
ISSN:1758-0846
1758-0854
DOI:10.1111/aphw.12276