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Stress

Does work stress hurt performance through mental health?

Chen B, Wang L, Li B, et al. · Frontiers in psychology · 2022

Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC

Among 196 Chinese SME employees surveyed in the COVID-19 period, work stress predicted worse mental health and performance; mental health fully mediated the stress–performance link, and servant leadership did not moderate stress.

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How this study connects

Role on claims

Each row is a claim on a concept or method page where this paper supports, challenges, or qualifies the statement. Roles are hand-checked — not a model guess.

  • SupportsStress & Copingconcept

    Full mediation: in this sample stress did not reach performance except through mental health.

    The path from work stress to performance ran entirely through mental health. Work stress negatively predicted performance (β = -0.193) and mental health (β = -0.517), and the stress-to-performance link became non-significant once mental health entered the model.

    Evidence for the claim as stated.

Study at a glance

Design
Cross-sectional — Email survey of Chinese SME employees during COVID-19; hierarchical linear regression of work stress, mental health, performance, and servant leadership
N
N=196 · 450 questionnaires emailed; 196 valid (43.6% response)
Population
Employees of Chinese SMEs (mostly 21–200 staff; 63.8% non-high-tech), typically ≥2 years tenure
Outcome
Self-reported work stress, mental health, employee performance, and servant leadership

Structured fields used in claim comparison tables when every cited study has a complete layer.

Inspect source passages

Does work stress hurt performance through mental health?

These passages occur verbatim in the stored paper text. They support the points listed below; they do not verify every statement in the explanation.

196 valid of 450 questionnaires (43.6%).

450 questionnaires were administered via email, and 196 valid questionnaires were returned—an effective rate of 43.6%.

Work stress → performance β = −0.193, p < 0.01.

The results revealed that work stress negatively affects employee performance (β = −0.193, p < 0.01).
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Key findings

Work stress negatively predicted performance (β = −0.193, p < 0.01) and mental health (β = −0.517, p < 0.001). Mental health fully mediated stress→performance (stress became ns when health was in the model). Servant leadership’s stress × leadership interaction was not significant.

Methodology

Emailed 450 questionnaires (196 valid, 43.6%) via campus/industry contacts. Used translated multi-item scales and hierarchical linear regression (plus Pearson correlations) to test H1–H4 on stress, mental health, performance, and servant leadership.

Limitations

A cross-sectional self-report sample cannot prove causation or that hiring servant leaders would protect mental health during a pandemic.

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