Background: The return to work from maternity leave is a time when the professional demands overlap with the new responsibilities of caring for children, which may result in psychological stress for nurses. Perceived social support can be a protective resource to buffer stress and promote adaptation.
Objective: To determine if perceived social support would moderate the relationship between occupational stress and psychological well-being for nurses who returned to work after childbirth.
Method: A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out in ten health care facilities in Dakahlia Governorate, Egypt. Four validated Arabic questionnaires were completed by a convenience sample of 200 nurses who had returned to work within 12 months after giving birth: a demographic questionnaire, a Brief Nursing Stress Scale, a 18-item Swedish adaptation of Ryff's Psychological Well-Being Scale, and a Perceived Social Support Scale for postpartum nurses. Descriptive statistics, correlation tests, multiple regression, and Hayes' PROCESS macro were used for analyses.
Results: Occupational stress had significant negative correlation with perceived social support (r = −0.332, p < .01) and psychological well-being (r = −0.506, p < .01). Psychological well-being was positively related to perceived social support (r = 0.410, p < .01). Occupational stress was a significant negative predictor of well-being (β = −0.506, p < .001) for regression results. Moderation analysis confirmed that the negative relationship between stress and well-being was significantly mitigated by perceived social support (β = 2.500, p < .001), accounting for 52% of the variance in well-being.
Conclusion: The importance of perceived social support in decreasing stress and enhancing wellbeing of postpartum nurses suggests that multi-level supportive interventions are necessary.