Occupational Stress and Depression of Korean Employees: Moderated Mediation Model of Burnout and Grit

Background: The present study investigated an interpersonal model of development of depressive symptoms in employees, where occupational stress affects burnout, which in turn affects risk for depression, and whether this mediation is moderated by grit.

Methods: A total of 11,421 participants, aged 19 to 65 years, who were employees of 18 private companies and local government organizations in Korea were included. They completed questionnaires, including the Korean version of occupational stress scale, Oldenburg Burnout Inventory, Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale and Grit scale. Mediation and moderation analyses were carried out in the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences PROCESS macro.

Results: The association between occupational stress and depressive symptoms was mediated by exhaustion (b = -0.256, 95 % CI [0.244, 0.268]) and disengagement (b = -0.052, 95 % CI [0.039, 0.065]). Moreover, the effect of exhaustion on depressive symptoms was moderated by each grit, with the effect being stronger for employees with low grit (b = 0.939, p < 0.001 for passion and b = 0.629, p < 0.001 for perseverance) than for those with high grit (b = 0.944, p < 0.001 for passion and b = 0.686, p < 0.001 for perseverance).

Limitations: The cross-sectional design of the study does not allow causal inferences.

Conclusions: These findings contribute to the understanding of how occupational stress predicts depressive symptoms in the workplace and provide practical implications for preventing burnout and nurturing grit to protect employees' mental health in the workplace.