203. Occupational stress on depression and sleep among hr professionals in large corporations

Abstract Background Against the backdrop of increasingly sophisticated organizational management and a continuously strengthening performance orientation in large enterprises, HR specialists often bear multiple responsibilities, including policy implementation, emotional coordination, and conflict mediation. Their occupational stress is characterized by both persistence and concealment. Research in the field of mental health treatment indicates that chronic occupational stress can affect individual mental health through emotional exhaustion, cognitive rumination, and physiological hyperarousal mechanisms, and may induce depressive symptoms and sleep disorders. This study aims to systematically analyze the relationship between occupational stress levels, depressive states, and sleep quality among HR specialists in large enterprises, providing empirical evidence for workplace psychological intervention and mental health prevention. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted, selecting 312 HR specialists from three large enterprises as the research subjects. Occupational stress levels were assessed using the Job Demand-Control Model Scale, depressive symptoms were measured using the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), and sleep quality was assessed using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). The sample was divided into low, medium, and high stress groups based on the ternary scores of occupational stress, and differences in psychological and sleep indicators among the groups were compared. Correlation analysis and multiple linear regression models were used to control for potential confounding factors such as age, length of service, and gender to improve the stability and explanatory validity of the results. To reduce the influence of common method bias, the questionnaires were collected anonymously and completed uniformly during non-working hours. Results The results showed that the PHQ-9 score of the high-stress group was 12.4 ± 4.1, significantly higher than that of the low-stress group (6.1 ± 3.0), with a statistically significant difference (t = 9.37, p<.001). The PSQI score of the high-stress group was 9.2 ± 3.3, while that of the low-stress group was 5.0 ± 2.4, with sleep disorder rates of 48.7% and 17.9%, respectively. Correlation analysis indicated a moderate positive correlation between occupational stress scores and depressive symptoms (r = 0.46, p<.001), and a significant positive correlation with decreased sleep quality (r = 0.39, p<.001). Multiple regression analysis further showed that, after controlling for demographic variables, high occupational stress remained an independent predictor of both worsening depressive symptoms and decreased sleep quality, with a stronger predictive effect on depressive symptoms than on sleep quality. Discussion Occupational stress is closely associated with depressive symptoms and sleep disorders among HR professionals in large enterprises, representing a significant psychosocial risk factor affecting their mental health. In psychotherapy practice, it is necessary to incorporate occupational stress into routine psychological assessments and implement comprehensive interventions combining stress management, cognitive behavioral interventions for sleep, and emotion regulation training. Simultaneously, optimizing workload and supportive environment at the organizational level can help reduce the risk of mental health problems. Future research, through longitudinal follow-up and multi-indicator integration, will further explore the causal pathways of occupational stress on mood and sleep, and evaluate the intervention effects of different psychotherapy strategies in the workplace.