The role of self-endangering cognitions between long-term care nurses' altruistic job motives and exhaustion.

Background: Due to demographic change and staff shortages nurses suffer under high work strain. As a consequence, caregivers' absenteeism due to mental stress, in particular burnout, is high. To explain the development of nurses' burnout more research is needed on nurses' individual resources and coping strategies. Self-endangering is a potentially harmful coping strategy. Objective: To expand the perspective of the Job Demand-Resources Model by including caregivers' intraindividual resources and the coping construct of self-endangering as a mediator between personal resources and nurses' emotional exhaustion. Methods: A longitudinal questionnaire survey was conducted between July 2020-March 2021 among nurses in long-term care in Germany. The final analysis sample consisted of wave 1 = 416 and wave 1,2 = 50. Data were analysed by a multiverse analytic strategy using regression analysis with measurement repetition and cross-lagged-panel design for waves one and two. Variables used for regression analysis and cross-lagged-panel were: Independent variables: An altruistic job motivation, team identification and self-esteem, dependent variables: Exhaustion and disengagement, and mediators: Self-endangering cognitions and behavior tendencies. Results: A highly altruistic job motivation leads to more self-endangering cognitions and to more self-endangering behavior tendencies. Mixed model analysis and cross-sectional path analysis confirmed mediation effects from altruism over self-endangering to exhaustion. Conclusion: Our findings are at odds with some research findings about altruism in nursing, such that too much altruism can lead to harmful self-endangering. We also introduce a new instrument to capture self-endangering in nursing care. Future research should investigate various facets of self-endangering in nursing. We assume that leadership behavior could have influence on self-endangering. New health policy structures are needed to improve working conditions in nursing and thus prevent self-endangering.

Distorted Time Perspective in Adolescent Afghan and Syrian Refugees Is Associated With Psychological Distress.

Young refugees are a high-risk group for mental disorders, particularly for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Individuals with PTSD suffer from an altered time perspective with a focus on negative experiences in the past and a disregard for positive life events and the future. This study investigates time perspectives and psychological distress in 30 adolescent refugees from Syria and Afghanistan in Germany. Time perspective was assessed using the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory. The refugees exhibited a distorted time perspective that is common for individuals with PTSD: a high orientation toward the negative past and a low orientation toward the positive past and future. A high orientation toward the negative past was associated with high levels of general psychological distress, PTSD symptoms, and depression. A low orientation toward the future was related to high levels of anxiety. Taking time perspective and corresponding beliefs into consideration may be advantageous when treating refugees with trauma-related disorders.