Psychological stress and physiological outcomes: investigating the impact of attention biases and emotional regulation in Chinese military service members

Military service members are frequently exposed to high-stress situations that profoundly impact both their psychological and physiological health. Understanding the interplay between stress and its multifaceted impacts is crucial for designing targeted interventions to optimize the health and performance of this population. This study investigated the relationships among psychological stress, psychological resilience, attention biases (attention to positive information, API; attention to negative information, ANI), emotional regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal, CR; expression inhibition, EI), and key physiological markers, including hemoglobin (HGB) levels and red cell distribution width (RDW), in a sample of 673 male Chinese military personnel. The results revealed significant associations between psychological stress and attention biases and emotional regulation strategies, with direct effects for physiological markers such as HGB and RDW. Notably, EI emerged as a complex mediator, significantly reducing RDW despite increased psychological stress. These findings highlight the imperative to incorporate comprehensive stress management into military training programs, thereby enhancing health and operational readiness of service members in high-stress contexts.