Date

10-16-2025

Department

School of Behavioral Sciences

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD)

Chair

Patrick Slowinski

Keywords

Grit, resilience, mental toughness, psychological capital, perceived occupational stress, high-risk occupation, emergency services, police, nursing, military

Disciplines

Psychology

Abstract

The objective for this quantitative correlational study was to investigate how positive psychological factors, such as grit, resilience, and mental toughness, are related to employee perceptions of occupational stress. In this study, 115 full-time employees across various levels of occupational stress and risk, completed online surveys utilizing the Short Grit Scale (Grit-S), the Conner-Davidson Resilience Scale 10 (CD-RISC-10), the Mental Toughness Questionnaire 10 (MTQ10), and the Perceived Occupational Stress Scale (POS). The results indicated that grit, resilience, and mental toughness do not relate to perceptions of occupational stress. Additionally, grit, resilience, or mental toughness were not related to perceptions of occupational stress based on job risk. However, occupational risk is significantly related to perceived occupational stress. The results also suggest significant relationships between grit, resilience, mental toughness, and age, as well as differences between male and female employees, and between employees with or without military experience. Based on these findings, job-specific factors and individual differences relate to facets of psychological capital and perceptions of occupational stress. Future research could build on this study to examine other variables that influence individual perceptions of occupational stress and how that relates to performance in high-stress occupations.

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