The impact of digital transformation on employee mental health

Abstract Background With the acceleration of corporate digital transformation, employees are facing emerging occupational stressors such as the reshaping of work patterns, pressure to update skills, and digital overload, which significantly increase mental health risks. Traditional Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) exhibit limitations, including delayed response and a lack of diversity in format, when addressing psychological adaptation issues in digital environments. This study aims to explore the effectiveness of a structured psychological adaptation intervention designed for the digital transformation context in alleviating employees' digital stress, thereby enhancing their psychological adaptability and work engagement. Methods The study recruited 150 employees from enterprises undergoing digital transformation and randomly assigned them to Group A (n = 50), Group B (n = 50), and Group C (n = 50). Group A received an 8-week integrated digital adaptation intervention, which included mindfulness training in digital tool use, remote resilience coaching, in-person workshops on digital work boundaries, and online peer-support communities. Group B received conventional mental health lectures and self-help materials for the same duration, while Group C maintained their routine work arrangements without any structured psychological intervention. Assessments conducted before and after the intervention included the Digital Work Stress Scale (DWSS), the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) scale, the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale-9 (UWES-9), and salivary cortisol concentration as a physiological stress indicator. A repeated-measures ANOVA was employed to examine the interaction and main effects of group and time, supplemented by analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) where necessary to control for baseline differences. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS version 26.0, with the significance level set at α = 0.05. In the results, F denotes the F-value from the ANOVA, with the subscripts indicating the between-groups and error degrees of freedom, respectively; P represents the probability of statistical significance; and η2 indicates the effect size, measuring the magnitude of the treatment effect. Post hoc comparisons between groups were conducted using the Bonferroni correction method. Results Post-intervention, Group A demonstrated significantly greater improvements in digital stress reduction, anxiety symptom alleviation, work engagement enhancement, and cortisol level regulation compared to Groups B and C. Repeated-measures ANOVA revealed significant interaction effects between group (A, B, C) and time (pre- vs. post-intervention) for DWSS total score (F(2,147) = 21.05, p.001), GAD-7 total score (F(2,147) = 18.33, p.001), UWES-9 total score (F(2,147) = 23.17, p.001), and cortisol concentration (F(2,147) = 11.42, p.001). Post-hoc tests indicated that improvements across all measures were significantly greater in Group A than in Groups B and C (p.05), with effect sizes ranging from medium to large (η2 between 0.31 and 0.55). Discussion Findings indicate that the context-tailored integrated digital adaptation intervention significantly reduces digital stress and anxiety, enhances work engagement, and improves physiological stress responses. Its benefits may stem from systematically cultivating digital self-efficacy, promoting healthy digital habits, and strengthening perceived social support. Future studies should develop structured modular adaptation systems aligned with specific stages of organizational digital transformation, and examine their underlying mechanisms on corporate performance and long-term occupational health, to inform evidence-based mental health management in digital workplaces.