MENTAL TOUGHNESS AND MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS IN DOCTORS; A MEDIATING ROLE OF EMOTION REGULATION

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To find out the relationship of mental toughness, emotion regulation, and mental health problems among doctors and to identify the mediating role of emotion regulation between mental toughness and mental health problems among doctors. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted from February to September 2019. Two hundred medical doctors (100 house officers & 100 postgraduates including 50 males and 50 females in each group) working in five government hospitals were selected through stratified sampling technique. The participants were given Mental Toughness Scale (MTS), Emotion Regulation Scale (ERS) and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21). Correlation and mediation analysis were carried out to find out the relationship and mediating role among all variables. RESULTS: Age of 200 doctors ranged from 22 to 36 years with mean age of 26.17±1.83 years. Mental toughness was found to have negative correlation with emotion dysregulation (-.31**) and mental health problems (-.34**) while had positive correlation with emotion regulation (.43). Mediation analysis highlighted that MTS was no longer the predictor of mental health problems after the effect of mediator as the indirect effect was (b=-.29, SE=.05) and direct effect was (b=-.35, SE=.05). The value of c prime indicated the partial mediating effect of emotion regulation between mental toughness and mental health problems among doctors. CONCLUSION: Emotion regulation and mental toughness both work as a protective factor for mental health problems among doctors. Emotion regulation was working as a positive factor with the combination of mental toughness against mental health problems among doctors.

Keywords

• emotional regulation
• mental health
• hospitals
• depression
• pshycological resilience