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. 2024 Dec 23;24(1):3563.
doi: 10.1186/s12889-024-20992-x.

Relieving anxiety and depression symptoms through promoting organizational identity and mitigating family-work conflict among medical professionals in digital leadership

Affiliations

Relieving anxiety and depression symptoms through promoting organizational identity and mitigating family-work conflict among medical professionals in digital leadership

Xin Zhou et al. BMC Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: Digital leadership might be an innovative approach to decreasing the elevated rates of anxiety and depression symptoms among medical professionals, while also enhancing their psychological well-being. This emerging pathway may offer promising strategies to support the mental health of medical professionals. This study seeks to investigate the association among digital leadership, organizational identity, family-work conflict, and anxiety and depression symptoms, and further to uncover the underlying moderating mechanisms interplay.

Methods: A cross-sectional online survey with 657 valid data were collected from four tertiary hospitals in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China, with a response rate of 69.3%. The statistical analysis was conducted employing IBM SPSS Statistics 22.0. Hierarchical regression analysis was performed to scrutinize the pertinent factors associated with anxiety and depression symptoms among medical professionals, while also evaluating the moderating influence of organizational identity and family-work conflict on the nexus among those.

Results: The prevalence of anxiety and depression symptoms among medical professionals was 50.1%. Anxiety and depression symptoms were negatively correlated with digital leadership (r= -0.278, p < 0.01) and organizational identity (r = - 0.318, p < 0.01), and positively correlated with family-work conflict (r = 0.445, p < 0.01). Organizational identity (β = - 0.938, p < 0.05) and family-work conflict (β = 0.698, p < 0.05) moderate the relationship between digital leadership and anxiety and depression symptoms; The results of the simple slope analysis indicated that high organizational identity and low family-work conflict strengthened the effect of digital leadership on anxiety and depression symptoms among Chinese medical professionals.

Conclusions: The prevalence of anxiety and depression symptoms among medical professionals was noted to be high. This study posits that strengthening digital leadership could apparently improve anxiety and depression symptoms among medical professionals. Moreover, it highlights the moderating role of organizational identity and family-work conflict in the relationship between digital leadership and anxiety and depression symptoms. These discoveries underscore the significance of implementing support and interventions to enhance the mental well-being of medical professionals, encompassing the cultivation of organizational identity, reduction of family-work conflict, and acknowledgment of the potential role of digital leadership in addressing mental health challenges.

Keywords: Anxiety and Depression Symptoms; Digital Leadership; Family-Work Conflict; Medical Professionals; Organizational Identity.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: This study adhered to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki and was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of the Institutional Review Board of Harbin Medical University. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Depression effective percentage of anxiety and depression symptoms in medical professionals
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Correlations among continuous variables. Note: DL=Digital Leadership; FW=Family-Work Conflict; WF=Work-Family Conflict; OI= Organizational identity; AD=Anxiety and Depression; **p<0.01
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Simple slope plot of the interaction between digital leadership and organizational identify on anxiety and depression symptoms
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Simple slope plot of the interaction between digital leadership and family-work conflict on anxiety and depression symptoms

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