Background Amidst the rapidly evolving global healthcare environment, junior nurses must develop greater adaptability. However, issues such as workplace bullying significantly undermine their adaptive performance. Guided by the Job Demands-Resources Theory and Emotion Regulation Theory, this study examines the chain-mediating role of cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression, and work engagement in the relationship between workplace bullying and adaptive performance. Methods From April to May 2024, a cross-sectional survey was conducted in 17 hospitals in Southwest China. The study utilized a comprehensive set of measurement tools, including the General Information Questionnaire, the Negative Acts Questionnaire-Revised, the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, the Work Engagement Questionnaire, and the Adaptive Performance Questionnaire. All statistical analyses were performed with SPSS and Mplus. Results A total of 988 junior nurses were included in this study. Adaptive performance was negatively correlated with workplace bullying ( r = −0.335) and expressive suppression ( r = −0.180) and positively correlated with cognitive reappraisal ( r = 0.556) and work engagement ( r = 0.576) (all p 0.01). The indirect effect of workplace bullying on adaptive performance via emotion regulation and work engagement was significant (standardized indirect effect = −0.188, 95% BC CI −0.238, −0.138), accounting for 51.8% of the total standardized effect. Conclusion There was a significant negative correlation between workplace bullying and adaptive performance of junior nurses, in which cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression, and work engagement played a mediating role. This suggests that when healthcare institutions and nursing administrators develop strategies to enhance adaptive performance, they should mitigate workplace bullying and enhance cognitive reappraisal capabilities, reduce expressive suppression tendencies, and strengthen work engagement levels. However, the cross-sectional design precludes causal inferences, and the regional sample may limit generalizability.
Du et al. (Wed,) studied this question.