Resilience as a Mediator of the Relationship between Perceived Social Support and Public Health Emergency-related Post-traumatic Growth among Medical staff

Background As central participants in Public Health Emergency (PHE), medical staffs may face positive changes, such as post-traumatic growth, while being traumatised. However, previous research remains deficient in factors influencing Post-Traumatic Growth (PTG). The aim of this paper is to examine how resilience mediates the relationship between perceived social support and PTG among medical staff. Method Using statistical descriptive and one-way analyses, we investigated the mediating effects of a cross-sectional study with 730 medical staff from a general hospital in Hubei Province, the epicenter of PHE in China, through Structural Equation Modelling(SEM). Results The mean PTG score among medical staff was 60.48 ( SD  = 24.49). The direct impact of perceived social support on PTG was significant (0.218, 95% CI [0.083, 0.361], P  < 0.001), constituting 49.98% of the total effect. Moreover, the indirect impact of perceived social support on PTG via resilience was also significant (0.218, 95% CI [0.119, 0.320], P  < 0.001), accounting for 50.02% of the total effect. Conclusion Our study demonstrated the positive impact of perceived social support on PTG among medical staff, with psychological resilience playing a mediating role. It suggests that interventions should focus on increasing perceived social support and resilience to foster positive psychological changes and improve the quality of healthcare services.