The Relationship Between Physicians’ Empathy and Stress: The Roles of Psychological Resilience and Social Support
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54097/2ny7t632Keywords:
Doctor, Empathy, Stress, Resilience, Social SupportAbstract
Objective: To explore the relationship between doctors' empathy and work stress, the influence of different variables on doctors' empathy, mental resilience, perceived stress and social support, and the influence mechanism of mental resilience and social support on empathy and work stress. Methods: The Jefferson Empathy Scale, Psychological Resilience Scale, Perceived Stress Scale and Social Support Scale were used to investigate doctors. SPSS26.0 statistical software was used to explore the effects of gender, marital status, educational background, employment form and income difference on doctors' empathy, mental resilience, perceived stress and social support. The mediating role of resilience in the relationship between empathy and perceived stress, and the moderating role of social support in the relationship between empathy and perceived stress were tested by building a model. Results: There was no significant difference in doctors' empathy, mental resilience, perceived stress and social support in terms of gender, educational background, employment form and income (P BBB 0 0.05). There was significant statistical difference in doctors' empathy in terms of marital status (P < 0.05). The score of empathy in married doctors was significantly higher than that in unmarried doctors, divorced doctors and separated doctors. There was a significant correlation between doctors' empathy and their resilience, perceived stress, and social support (P <0.001). Their resilience, social support and empathy were positively correlated, while their empathy, resilience, and social support were negatively correlated with doctors' perceived stress (P <0.001). There was significant negative correlation between perceived stress and social support (P < 0.001). Physician empathy was a negative predictor of perceived stress (β=-0.732, P < 0.001). Doctor empathy positively predicted resilience (β=0.152, P < 0.001). Moreover, mental resilience had a negative prediction on perceived stress (β=-0.382, P < 0.001). Social support played a negative moderating role in the relationship between doctors' empathy and perceived stress. Conclusion: Married doctors have higher empathy ability. Empathy can directly affect clinicians' stress status, and it can indirectly affect clinicians' stress status through mental resilience. For doctors with higher social support, with the increase of empathy, perceived stress level will significantly decrease.
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