Associations between occupational stress, burnout and well-being among manufacturing workers: mediating roles of psychological capital and self-esteem

BACKGROUND: Occupational stress is an important risk factor for mental health among occupational population. Exploring related mediators of workers’ mental health are important to improve their health and performance. Our study aims to explore the relationships between work stress, positive psychological resources, burnout and well-being. METHODS: The study was performed during the period of June and July in 2015. A questionnaire that consisted of the Effort-reward Imbalance Scale, the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey, the Psychological Capital Questionnaire, the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale, the Flourishing Scale, as well as demographic and working factors. RESULTS: Psychological capital mediated the associations of effort-reward imbalance and emotional exhaustion, cynicism, professional efficacy and well-being. Self-esteem mediated the associations of effort-reward imbalance ratio with cynicism, professional efficacy and well-being, and mediated the associations of overcommitment and cynicism, professional efficacy and well-being. CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicated that enhancing positive psychological resources could be considered in developing intervention strategies for psychological health among manufacturing employees. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12888-017-1533-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.