Psychosocial Job Stressors and Mental Health: The Potential Moderating Role of Emotion Regulation.

OBJECTIVE: This study examines whether emotion regulation moderates the association between psychosocial job stressors and psychological distress.

METHODS: We used data from the Work and Wellbeing Survey of 1044 Australian working adults. An adjusted linear regression model was used to estimate the moderating effect of emotion regulation.

RESULTS: The impact of low fairness and low control at work on distress was stronger in individuals with low (rather than high) cognitive reappraisal [β = 2.42, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) = 0.07 to 4.76; β = 2.58, 95% CI = 0.04 to 5.12, respectively], whereas the impact of high demands on distress was stronger in those with high (rather than low) expressive suppression (β = 2.94, 95% CI = 0.78 to 5.10).

CONCLUSION: Individual differences in emotion regulation in response to adverse job conditions should be considered in the management of workplace mental health.