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  • Self-Regulation Mediates the Relationship Between Stress and Quality of Life in Shift-Working Healthcare Professionals: Behavioral Clustering Insights

This content will become publicly available on September 1, 2026

Title: Self-Regulation Mediates the Relationship Between Stress and Quality of Life in Shift-Working Healthcare Professionals: Behavioral Clustering Insights
The psychological mechanisms through which occupational stress impacts quality of life remain underexplored in shift-working healthcare professionals, a population exposed to unique stressors such as circadian disruption, high cognitive demands, and irregular work schedules. This study examined whether executive self-regulation mediates the relationship between perceived stress and quality of life in a sample of 82 shift-working healthcare professionals. Participants completed validated self-report measures, including the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-4), Executive Skills Questionnaire–Revised (ESQ-R), and Quality of Life Scale (QOLS). Mediation analysis using 5126 bias-corrected bootstrapped samples revealed that perceived stress significantly predicted self-regulation difficulties, which in turn were associated with diminished quality of life. Self-regulation demonstrated an indirect-only mediation effect in both directions, though the forward path (stress → self-regulation → QOL) showed a stronger effect (indirect effect = −0.79; 95% CI: −1.63, −0.17), compared to the reverse path (QOL → self-regulation → stress; indirect effect = −0.04; 95% CI: −0.08, −0.01). Unsupervised K-means clustering identified three distinct behavioral clusters: resilient, low-strain, and high-strain, providing further support for personalized targeted interventions. These findings highlight self-regulation as a central mechanism through which stress affects quality of life and underscore the need for interventions that strengthen executive functioning in shift-based healthcare settings.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2334391
PAR ID:
10639597
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
MDPI
Date Published:
Journal Name:
European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education
Volume:
15
Issue:
9
ISSN:
2254-9625
Page Range / eLocation ID:
180
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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