This study’s objective is to examine the relationship between emotional demands and emotional social support at work, and the impact of resilience on health. A cross-sectional study of 156 firefighters was conducted. Descriptive analyses of the study’s variables were performed, along with structural equation analysis and hierarchical regression analysis. The results suggest statistically significant relationships among the study’s variables. Social support from one’s boss and intense emotional demands were found to have an interaction effect on firefighters’ resilience. The findings confirm the mediating role of resilience and the relationship with emotional social support from the boss on firefighters’ occupational health.

(1) Background: The present study examined how social comparison orientation, stress appraisal and different social comparison strategies interact in women facing chronic illness. (2) Methods: Assessments were conducted by a trained professional in face-to face semistructured interviews (n = 179 women with chronic illness). Main outcome measures included social comparison scales and a stress appraisal questionnaire. The mediation model, by a bootstrapping procedure, was used to analyze the interaction among variables. (3) Results: Regarding the relationships among variables studied, they were related to each other except for a downward contrast, which allowed us to propose our hypothetical mediation model. Results showed that stress appraisal fully mediates between social comparison orientation and social comparison strategies except for the upward identification strategy. (4) Conclusions: Our results suggest that uncertainty, feelings of threat and low control over one’s illness or, in general, stress appraisal, had an important mediating effects over social comparison processes in patients with chronic illnesses. Therefore, by understanding the stress appraisal process, and the variables that might modify it, we could improve the use of social comparison as a favorable coping strategy.

Within the framework of research on students’ active performance in their study habits, the aim of this study is to analyze a model predicting the effect of social identity and personal initiative on engagement in university students. We conducted a cross-sectional study on 266 students from different Spanish universities. The resulting data were analyzed using SPSS Macro MEDIATE. Evidence was found for the proposed model. Only group-identity predicted personal initiative and engagement. Analysis revealed the mediating role of proactive behavior on engagement in university students. It is concluded that the university management may intervene, from an organizational-culture approach, promoting guidelines to reinforce students’ sense of belonging by enhancing initiative and autonomous problem solving in learning behaviors

En los últimos años las instituciones universitarias, junto al interés tradicional sobre el rendimiento académico, están mostrando atención hacia el bienestar de los estudiantes. El concepto de engagement trata de vincular ambos ámbitos y sugiere que hay mecanismos motivacionales comunes al bienestar y rendimiento. Los adultos universitarios especialmente optan por cursar estudios universitarios por un afán de desarrollo que se traduce en una pasión por aprender. Esta pasión, ha evidenciado efectos tanto positivos como negativos sobre el bienestar. Por otra parte, el perfeccionismo ha mostrado ser un predictor del desempeño académico con resultados ambivalentes en la salud de estudiantes. Por ello, se pretende en el siguiente trabajo analizar la relación del perfeccionamiento sobre el engagement académico y el efecto mediador de la pasión en 545 estudiantes universitarios de educación a distancia a través de un diseño cuasiexperimental. Se realizan análisis de mediación utilizando el método Partial Least Squares (PLS) con el software SmartPLS. Los resultados señalan que las dimensiones de pasión armoniosa y obsesiva, y el perfeccionismo autocentrado y socialmente prescrito difieren en sus puntuaciones en engagement académico. Así, el perfeccionismo autocentrado presenta una relación significativa con el engagement, tanto directamente como a través de la pasión, especialmente la armoniosa. Se observa un efecto diferente con el perfeccionismo socializado. El modelo presenta un adecuado nivel predictivo (Q2= [.435 - .630]). Por tanto, la pasión constituye una variable mediadora entre las creencias perfeccionistas de los estudiantes y el engagement académico en la muestra de estudio (SRMR<.08; R2= 45% p<.005). Las implicaciones teóricas y prácticas son analizadas, como la importancia de implementar estrategias que fomenten en el estudiantado un papel activo, retador y flexible de su aprendizaje.