job stress, job satisfaction and mental health: the balancing effects of personal hardiness and social support network factors

objectives: the present study was designed to investigate the effects of job satisfaction and mental health on job stress and the balancing effects of hardiness and availability of social support network in a group of medical staff. method: two hundred of surgery room staff were studied by utilizing a low-high social support network index, operating room stress factor index questionnaire, life event index, job description index (jdi), general health questionnaire (ghq), personal view survey (pv8) and quality relationship inventory (qri). results: the findings revealed significant negative correlation between job stress and job satisfaction and ghq's scores. a positive and significant correlation was found between job satisfaction and ghq's scores. the results also suggested that higher level of job satisfaction and mental health may reduce job stress in the staff who have higher levels of hardiness. furthermore, the staff with higher social support network seemed to have higher job satisfaction, but they did not show better mental health compared with those with lower social support network. conclusion: the results of the present study showed that social support network together with personal hardiness had a significant impact on perceived job stress, while the male staff showed higher level of hardiness when compared with the female staff.