Associations Between Public Service Motivation, Depression and Anxiety Among Firefighters: A Chain Mediation Model of Employee Resilience and Job Satisfaction

Abstract The Chinese firefighting system has been transferred from military soldiers to professional civil servants since the 2018 institutional reform, and they have become a critical component of the newly established Department of Emergency Management. Studies on firefighters in China are limited, and this study can contribute to our understanding of the mental health and influencing mechanisms of emergency management workforces like firefighters, particularly in the context of institutional reform and a shortage of disaster workforce worldwide. This study investigates the associations between public service motivation (PSM), employee resilience, job satisfaction, depression and anxiety (DA) in firefighters. A questionnaire survey of 776 firefighters from two provinces, one from the north and the other from the south, was conducted. Chain-mediated regression models were used to analyze the associations. The results demonstrate that firefighters with more PSM have significantly lower depression and anxiety (beta = −0.215, p < 0.001), higher degrees of employee resilience (beta = 0.946), and job satisfaction (beta = 0.633). Employee resilience and job satisfaction mediated the relationship between PSM and DA. Three indirect pathways were detected. First, a higher PSM is associated with higher employee resilience and lower DA. Second, a higher PSM is correlated with higher job satisfaction and lower DA. Third, the coefficients between PSM, employee resilience, job satisfaction, depression and anxiety are statistically significant. This paper provides a valuable contribution to the knowledge of human resource management and the well-being of the emergency management workforce.