Firefighters’ psychological capital and job stress: the mediating role of coping self-efficacy and work engagement

Firefighters are essential for protecting property and saving lives during emergency operations, which exposes them to elevated levels of occupational stress. This study explores the relationship between psychological capital and job stress of Vietnamese firefighters and examines the mediating roles of coping self-efficacy and work engagement. A sample of 535 firefighters employed in Vietnam was surveyed using the Psychological Capital scale, the Sources of Occupational Stress scale, the Work Engagement scale, and the Coping Self-Efficacy Scale. The collected data were analyzed and validated using SmartPLS 4 through the Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) technique to examine the proposed research model and test the associated hypotheses. The findings showed that psychological capital was not directly related to job stress. However, a significant negative indirect association was observed. Work engagement significantly mediated this relationship. In addition, work engagement and coping self-efficacy sequentially mediated the link between psychological capital and job stress. The results suggest that fire departments in Vietnam could reduce job stress by implementing a targeted training program to enhance psychological capital, thereby fostering greater work engagement and coping self-efficacy.