The role of cognitive motivation and self-regulation in coping with occupational demands

Inga Hoff; Aniko Farkas; Ursula Melicherova; Volker Köllner; Jürgen Hoyer; Alexander Strobel; Anja Strobel

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1422724

The role of cognitive motivation and self-regulation in coping with occupational demands

Front Psychol. 2024 Dec 4:15:1422724. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1422724. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Inga Hoff¹, Aniko Farkas¹, Ursula Melicherova², Volker Köllner^{2

3}, Jürgen Hoyer⁴, Alexander Strobel⁵, Anja Strobel¹

Affiliations

¹ Personality Psychology and Assessment, Department of Psychology, Chemnitz University of Technology, Chemnitz, Germany.
² Psychosomatic Rehabilitation Research Group, Department of Psychosomatic Medicine, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
³ Department of Psychosomatic Medicine, Rehabilitation Center Seehof, Federal German Pension Agency, Teltow, Germany.
⁴ Behavioural Psychotherapy, Faculty of Psychology, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany.
⁵ Differential and Personality Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany.

Abstract

Cognitive motivation (COM) in conjunction with self-regulation (SR) was demonstrated to be positively linked to mental health in educational and clinical contexts. We introduce COM and SR in the occupational context and hypothesize these traits-based on their conceptual link to hardiness - to counteract health-risking stressors. Data from two large cross-sectional studies in Germany comprise a sample of 1,022 psychosomatic rehabilitation in-patients and a healthy sample of 298 employees of various occupations. Using bootstrapping in correlation analyses, we found in both samples COM and SR to be especially associated with an active, meaningful, and persistent coping style (0.31 ≤ r ≤ 0.57). Analyses via structural equation modeling found COM cross-sectionally predicting occupational coping via SR in both samples. We discuss COM and SR as personal resources with respect to Conservation of Resources Theory and provide ideas for promoting these variables in patients and employees.

Keywords: cognitive motivation; hardiness; mental health; occupational health; self-regulation.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This research was supported by a grant from Federal German Pension Agency (Deutsche Rentenversicherung–Bund, #8011–106-31/31.127) to Jürgen Hoyer and Volker Köllner. The publication of this article was funded by the Chemnitz University of Technology.