Investigating the Mediating Role of Job Stress in the Relationship Between Hardiness and Self-efficacy in Health Network Employees

Background: The health network employees experience problems such as job stress, and characteristics of hardiness and selfefficacy help them in reducing their job problems. The aim of the present study was to investigate the mediating role of job stress in the relationship between hardiness and self-efficacy in the employees of the health network of Tehran. Methods: In this descriptive-analytical research that was conducted cross-sectionally in 2023, 255 employees working in the health network of Tehran, District 6 were selected and included in the study through random cluster sampling. The data collection tools in this study were three questionnaires including the standard hardiness questionnaire by Kubasa et al, General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES), and Philip L. Rice’s Occupational Stress Questionnaire. Descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and structural equations were used with SPSS 22 and LISREL 8.8 software for statistical analysis. Results: The results showed that there was a significant relationship between hardiness and self-efficacy (r=0.341), between hardiness and job stress (r=-0.517), and between self-efficacy and job stress (r=-0.433). The values of goodness of fit indices (0.523), adjusted fit index (0.681), comparative fit index (0.653), normed fit index (0.723), non-normed fit index (0.533), and incremental fit index (0.761) showed that job stress had a mediating role between hardiness and self-efficacy. Conclusion: Hardiness and its components can predict self-efficacy and job stress and be effective in increasing and decreasing it, respectively. Therefore, it is suggested that by providing hardiness training courses as a personality-acquired characteristic can lead to better and higher performance of health network employees.