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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Occupational Health and Safety
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1407220
This article is part of the Research Topic Between Emotional Regulation and Dysregulation: Perspectives, Interventions, Tools and Technologies for Psychological Well-Being View all 8 articles

The influence of different conflict management styles on depressive symptoms in employees: the mediating role of emotional exhaustion

Provisionally accepted
Qihan Zhang Qihan Zhang 1,2Yueran Lin Yueran Lin 2Yimou Zhang Yimou Zhang 3Shaofeng Yang Shaofeng Yang 1,2,4*
  • 1 Institute of Psychology and Behavior, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin, China
  • 2 Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin, China
  • 3 Xiqing District Federation of Trade Unions, Tianjin, China
  • 4 School of Psychology, Inner Mongolia Normal University, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Although some studies have found that conflict management styles impact employees' levels of depression, the expressions of employees' depressive symptoms under various conflict management styles and the underlying mechanisms remain to be elucidated. In this study, a total of 1312 employees were gathered through an online survey to examine their current depressive status. Drawing on the conservation of resources theory, the mediating role of emotional exhaustion in the association between conflict management style and employee depression was further explored. The findings revealed that the prevalence of moderate to severe depression among the workers was 13.9%. Employees with different conflict management styles displayed distinct depression scores. The high coordination style group exhibited a significantly lower depression score compared to the high concession style group. Emotional exhaustion played a mediating role in the impact of both the coordination style and the concession style on employees' depression. It can be seen that the mental health needs of the workplace are imminent. The intervention measures to improve the mental health of employees in the working environment should take into account the cultivation of the coordination style of employee conflict management, reduce their emotional exhaustion, and stay away from depression through the acquisition of constructive and positive coping styles. Keywords: coordination style, concession style, emotional exhaustion, depression, employee

    Keywords: coordination style, concession style, Emotional exhaustion, Depression, Employee

    Received: 26 Mar 2024; Accepted: 23 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Zhang, Lin, Zhang and Yang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Shaofeng Yang, Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin, 300387, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.