Dispositional variations in positive acting and feeling at work and their influence on mental health: Positive psychological capital as a predictor of common emotional disorder and suicidal ideation in physicians in Rio Grande do Norte

Introduction : Workers' health, although not a new topic with regard to emotional conditions at work, has been observed in the last five years, as economic and social changes in the country have drawn the attention of Human Resources professionals and researchers to the growing trend of mental illness in the context of the relationship between organization, work, individual and mental health. The search for quality of life at work and worker mental health has become a recommendation not only of the Human Resources departments of organizations, but also a guideline of the World Health Organization (WHO). The situation is so serious that the WHO recommends that employers and managers adopt more programs to promote mental health in the workplace, as this can directly impact productivity and professional relationships in the workplace. Of the many variables intended to assess mental health at work, common emotional distress and suicidal ideation are among the main causes of absence (and death) worldwide. To this end, faced with such an urgent problem of solution, one of the theoretical perspectives of psychology that addresses reflections that are more concerned with inhibiting events and interventions than with diagnostic ones has been Positive Psychology. Objective : the aim is to verify the relationship between positive psychological capital at work, the mental health of workers (specifically, anxiety, depression and stress and suicidal ideation) in the health area, exclusively the physician of Rio Grande do Norte/RN. Method: This is a cross-sectional, descriptive, exploratory and correlational study with a quantitative focus, including 410 physicians in the state of Rio Grande do Norte-RN in different specialties and with more than one year of training in the profession. The suicidal ideation scales, DASS-21 (anxiety, depression and stress), positive psychological capital at work scale and sociodemographic data were applied to physicians in the State of Rio Grande do Norte - RN individually, through an electronic form hosted on google.docs, hosted on the CRM-RN website. Results: It was observed that the scales used presented reliable psychometric indicators for a sample of physicians and that the hypothesis that positive psychological capital at work negatively influenced common emotional disorder (anxiety, depression and stress) and suicidal ideation was confirmed, as well as, in the evaluation of frequencies at low, moderate and high levels of these constructs, that is, it was highlighted that the higher the level of psychological capital, the lower the level of common emotional disorder and suicidal ideation. Conclusion: Based on these findings, it is possible to state that positive psychological capital in the workplace may be an important psychological construct for the recognition and maintenance of workers' mental health, capable of contributing to occupational psychological development as a protective factor for occupational health.