ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Mental Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1691496
This article is part of the Research TopicPathways to Mental Health Resilience in Emergency Personnel: Protective Strategies and Occupational ChallengesView all 5 articles
The Impact of Perceived Social Support on Psychological Capital of Firefighters: The Chain Mediating Role of Exercise Self-Efficacy and Psychological Resilience
Provisionally accepted
- 1School of Physical Education and Health, Guilin University, Guilin 541006, Guangxi, China, Guilin, China
- 2Guilin No. 2 Technical School, Guilin 541002, Guangxi, China, guilin, China
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Background: This study explored how perceived social support affects firefighters' psychological capital through the chain mediating role of exercise self-efficacy and psychological resilience. Methods: Firefighters from a Jiangsu Province fire rescue team (N=524, 95.3% response rate) completed the Perceived Social Support Scale (PSSS), Self-Efficacy for Exercise Scale (SEE), Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), and Psychological Capital Questionnaire (PCQ). Hierarchical regression analysis and Bootstrap method (5000 resamples) tested the chain mediation model. Results: The sample consisted of 99.6% males, with ages mainly concentrated between 30-45 years, and an average service length of more than 10 years. Perceived social support was significantly positively correlated with psychological capital (r=0.592), exercise self-efficacy (r=0.527), and psychological resilience (r=0.582); exercise self-efficacy correlated with psychological resilience (r=0.579) (all p<0.001). The chain indirect effect (perceived social support→exercise self-efficacy→psychological resilience→psychological capital) was significant (95% CI [0.09, 0.18]). Conclusion: Perceived social support enhances firefighters' psychological capital both directly and indirectly through sequential improvements in exercise self-efficacy and psychological resilience. Fire departments should create supportive team environments and integrate physical training with psychological resilience cultivation to improve firefighters' psychological capital and mental health.
Keywords: perceived social support, Psychological Capital, exercise self-efficacy, psychological resilience, chain mediation, Firefighters
Received: 23 Aug 2025; Accepted: 30 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhao, Xu, Zhang, Yan and Su. 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:
Xinan Zhang, dsds2021043@163.com
Yongtao Yan, sunbird@szpu.edu.cn
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