IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i10p5926-d814776.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Resilience in the Ranks: Trait Mindfulness and Self-Compassion Buffer the Deleterious Effects of Envy on Mental Health Symptoms among Public Safety Personnel

Author

Listed:
  • Shadi Beshai

    (Department of Psychology, University of Regina, 3737 Wascana Parkway, Regina, SK S4S0A2, Canada)

  • Sandeep Mishra

    (Department of Management, Lang School of Business and Economics, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G2W1, Canada)

  • Justin R. Feeney

    (Department of Management and Marketing, School of Business, Rhode Island College, 600 Mount Pleasant Avenue, Providence, RI 02908, USA)

  • Tansi Summerfield

    (Department of Psychology, University of Regina, 3737 Wascana Parkway, Regina, SK S4S0A2, Canada)

  • Chet C. Hembroff

    (Department of Psychology, University of Regina, 3737 Wascana Parkway, Regina, SK S4S0A2, Canada)

  • Gregory P. Krätzig

    (Department of Psychology, University of Regina, 3737 Wascana Parkway, Regina, SK S4S0A2, Canada)

Abstract

Public safety personnel (PSP) face frequent stressors that increase their risk of developing symptoms of depression and anxiety. In addition to being exposed to potentially traumatic events, PSP trainees may face a compounded risk of developing mental health symptoms, as their training environments are conducive to social comparisons and the resultant painful emotion of envy. Envy is associated with numerous negative health and occupational outcomes. Fortunately, there are several individual difference factors associated with increased emotional regulation, and such factors may offer resilience against the damaging mental health effects of envy. In this study, we examined the interplay between dispositional mindfulness, self-compassion, and dispositional envy in predicting job satisfaction, stress, experience of positive and negative emotions, subjective resilience, and symptoms of depression and anxiety in a sample of police trainees ( n = 104). A substantial minority of trainees reported clinically significant symptoms of depression ( n = 19:18.3%) and anxiety ( n = 24:23.1%) in accordance with the cut-off scores on screening measures. Consistent with hypotheses, dispositional envy was associated with lower job satisfaction, greater stress, and greater anxiety and depression. Furthermore, envy was associated with higher negative emotions, lower positive emotions, and lower subjective resilience. Dispositional mindfulness and self-compassion were associated with greater job satisfaction, lower stress, and reduced symptoms of depression and anxiety. Moreover, mindfulness and self-compassion were both associated with lower negative emotions, higher positive emotions, and subjective resilience. The associations between envy and the relevant job and mental health outcomes were significantly diminished after controlling for mindfulness and self-compassion. This suggests that these protective traits may serve as transdiagnostic buffers to the effects of envy on mental health. The results of this study confirmed the damaging effects of envy and suggested the potential remediation of these effects through the cultivation of mindfulness and self-compassion.

Suggested Citation

  • Shadi Beshai & Sandeep Mishra & Justin R. Feeney & Tansi Summerfield & Chet C. Hembroff & Gregory P. Krätzig, 2022. "Resilience in the Ranks: Trait Mindfulness and Self-Compassion Buffer the Deleterious Effects of Envy on Mental Health Symptoms among Public Safety Personnel," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(10), pages 1-12, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:10:p:5926-:d:814776
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/10/5926/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/10/5926/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mujcic, Redzo & Oswald, Andrew J., 2018. "Is envy harmful to a society's psychological health and wellbeing? A longitudinal study of 18,000 adults," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 198(C), pages 103-111.
    2. Beshai, Shadi & Mishra, Sandeep & Meadows, Tyler J.S. & Parmar, Priya & Huang, Vivian, 2017. "Minding the gap: Subjective relative deprivation and depressive symptoms," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 18-25.
    3. Sandeep Mishra & Shadi Beshai & Amanda Wuth & Nabhan Refaie, 2019. "Risk and protective factors in problem gambling: an examination of psychological resilience," International Gambling Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(2), pages 241-264, May.
    4. Mujcic, Redzo & Oswald, Andrew J., 2018. "Is Envy Harmful to a Society’s Psychological Health and Wellbeing? A Longitudinal Study of 18,000 Adults," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 361, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rochelle Thompson & Briana N. M. Hagen & Margaret N. Lumley & Charlotte B. Winder & Basem Gohar & Andria Jones-Bitton, 2023. "“An Incredible Amount of Stress before You Even Put a Shovel in the Ground”: A Mixed Methods Analysis of Farming Stressors in Canada," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-23, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Osea Giuntella & Sally McManus & Redzo Mujcic & Andrew J. Oswald & Nattavudh Powdthavee & Ahmed Tohamy, 2023. "The Midlife Crisis," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 90(357), pages 65-110, January.
    2. David G. Blanchflower & Carol L. Graham, 2022. "The Mid-Life Dip in Well-Being: a Critique," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 161(1), pages 287-344, May.
    3. Stefano Bartolini & Marcin Piekalkiewicz & Francesco Sarracino, 2019. "A Social Cure for Social Comparisons," Department of Economics University of Siena 797, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    4. FitzRoy, Felix & Jin, Jim & Nolan, Michael A., 2019. "Higher Tax and Less Work: An Optimal Response to Relative Income Concern," IZA Discussion Papers 12468, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Rainer Zitelmann, 2024. "Popular perceptions of the rich in 13 countries," Economic Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(2), pages 363-373, June.
    6. Drakopoulos, Stavros A., 2023. "The Economics of Wellbeing and Psychology: An Historical and Methodological Viewpoint," MPRA Paper 117891, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Ronayne, David & Sgroi, Daniel, 2018. "Ignoring Good Advice," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 359, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    8. Yolanda López-del-Hoyo & Alicia Monreal-Bartolomé & Pablo Aisa & Adrián Pérez-Aranda & Carlos Plana & José Antonio Poblador & Jaime Casterad & Javier García-Campayo & Jesus Montero-Marin, 2022. "The Gambling Habits of University Students in Aragon, Spain: A Cross-Sectional Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(8), pages 1-11, April.
    9. Shadi Beshai & Sanju Mishra & Sandeep Mishra & R Nicholas Carleton, 2017. "Personal relative deprivation associated with functional disorders via stress: An examination of fibromyalgia and gastrointestinal symptoms," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(12), pages 1-14, December.
    10. Shi, Songyun & Chen, Yu-Chih & Yip, Paul S.F., 2023. "Relative deprivation patterns in social and geographical references for health trajectories in China: Investigations of gender and urban-rural disparities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 317(C).
    11. Jingfang Liu & Jun Kong & Xin Zhang, 2020. "Study on Differences between Patients with Physiological and Psychological Diseases in Online Health Communities: Topic Analysis and Sentiment Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(5), pages 1-17, February.
    12. Eman Leung & Albert Lee & Yilin Liu & Chi-Tim Hung & Ning Fan & Sam C. C. Ching & Hilary Yee & Yinan He & Richard Xu & Hector Wing Hong Tsang & Jingjing Guan, 2024. "Impact of Environment on Pain among the Working Poor: Making Use of Random Forest-Based Stratification Tool to Study the Socioecology of Pain Interference," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(2), pages 1-21, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:10:p:5926-:d:814776. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.