Introduction

It has been three years since the outbreak of COVID-19, which hit the global economy and caused serious psychological impact apart from the massive loss of lives around the world (Alessandri et al., 2021; Askari et al., 2022; Khudaykulov et al., 2022). The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimated that the level of hours worked around the world is expected to be 4.2% below the pre-pandemic level in the second quarter of 2022, implying that up to 123 million people worldwide may lose their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Such prediction is supported by many more bankruptcies, layoffs, and downsizings due to the deteriorating economic circumstances during the pandemic (Blanuša et al., 2021; Chen & Eyoun, 2021; Lian et al., 2022; Chen & Eyoun, 2021). These studies have advanced our understanding of how trait-based emotion regulation strategies help individuals cope with psychological distress induced by the COVID-19 pandemic (Askari et al., 2022), but they add little to the existing knowledge concerning the protective role of cognitive-based emotion regulation strategies in mitigating psychological distress. It is important to determine which cognitive-based emotion regulation strategies work in preventing distress because cognition, such as appraisals of the significance of what has happened for personal well-being, is necessary for generating emotions (Lazarus, 1991) such as distress. In other words, knowing the cognitive mechanism of how job insecurity associated with the COVID-19 pandemic triggers psychological distress and under what circumstances appraisals of stressful situations (i.e., stress appraisal) against the pandemic attenuate negative emotions may help prevent the detrimental impact of COVID-19-related stressor on psychological well-being.

Therefore, the present study aims to explore the cognitive mechanism of how job insecurity associated with the COVID-19 pandemic triggers psychological distress and investigate the key role of cognitive reappraisal as an emotion regulation strategy in mitigating psychological distress among job-insecure employees during the pandemic. Transactional theory suggests that cognitive appraisals (hereafter referred to as “stress appraisals” to distinguish it from cognitive reappraisal) serve as mediators of the emotional reaction in responding to a stimulus, and stress appraisals can be a function of the interaction between stimulus and person characteristics (Lazarus & Folkman, 1987). Following this logic, we proposed a moderated mediation model (see Fig. 1), wherein stress appraisals serve as mediators between job insecurity and psychological distress, and cognitive reappraisal acts as a moderator that interacts with job insecurity to predict stress appraisals and, hence, psychological distress.

Fig. 1
figure 1

The proposed model

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This study contributes to the existing literature in the following ways. First, we uncover the paradoxical cognitive mechanisms of how job insecurity associated with the COVID-19 pandemic relates to employees’ stress appraisals and, hence, psychological distress. Second, we identify cognitive reappraisal as a protective factor of psychological distress deriving from job insecurity associated with the pandemic. Third, we extend transactional theory by substantiating the role of cognition in emotion through an investigation of the mediating role of stress appraisals and the moderating role of cognitive reappraisal on the relationship between job insecurity and psychological distress.

Theoretical background and hypotheses development

Psychological distress as a consequence of job insecurity

Job insecurity refers to employees’ subjective perceptions of threats to the continuity and stability of their current employment (Hellgren et al., 1999; Shoss, 2017), which, in turn, causes detrimental consequences on their mental health (Chen & Eyoun, 2021). Among these consequences, psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic has received increasing attention (Blanuša et al., 2021; Chen & Eyoun, 2021; Gullo et al., 2022). Transactional theory suggests that stress appraisal plays an important role in individuals’ emotional reactions toward situational stimulus by sha** the ways in which the meaning of a specific situation or experience is generated (Lazarus, 1991; Ye et al., 2022b). However, the meaning of stressful experiences may vary depending on the emotion regulation strategies used by individuals. Cognitive reappraisal as one of the emotion regulation strategies may interact with employees’ stressful experiences to predict their stress appraisal and, therefore, their emotional reactions (e.g., psychological distress).

In the present study, we argue that job insecurity as a stressful psychological experience may trigger psychological distress via stress appraisals. However, the strength of such an indirect effect can be contingent on the extent to which the cognitive reappraisal strategy is used (Doerig et al., 2021; Gross & John, 2003). Below, we first elucidate the mediating role of two forms of stress appraisal (i.e., threat appraisal and challenge appraisal) and then clarify the moderating roles of cognitive reappraisal in the direct and indirect relationship between job insecurity and psychological distress via the two stress appraisals mentioned above.

Stress appraisal as a mediator

Transactional theory suggests that how individuals appraise a stressor can elicit different emotional reactions, with stress appraisals serving as mediators of an individual’s emotional reactions in responding to stressful situations (Chu et al., 2022; Lazarus & Folkman, 1987; Ye et al., 2022b). Therefore, we expect that stress appraisals (i.e., threat appraisal and challenge appraisal) of stressful situations serve as mediators in the relationship between job insecurity associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and psychological distress. We elucidate the underlying mechanisms accounting for the variance in psychological distress in responding to job insecurity, which helps explain why job insecurity induces or inhibits psychological distress.

Threat appraisal as a mediator

Threat appraisal refers to “an appraisal in which the perception of danger exceeds the perception of abilities or resources to cope with the stressor” (Tomaka et al., 1993, p. 248). A stressful situation wherein employees suffer from job insecurity may be appraised as threatening. Job insecurity, by its nature, communicates to employees that their past efforts and abilities are insufficient and that they must make progress to change this state of being unsafe by proving their values (e.g., performance, efforts, or ability) to the organization (Mitchell et al., 2019). However, reaching such a goal is not easy because it demands elevated endeavors than the ones they have previously made. Consequently, job-insecure employees may focus on the impending negative consequences (Chu et al., 2022), such as losing their job, if they fail to prove their values. In this respect, job insecurity may highlight the precarious nature of job-insecure employees’ employment and the fact that such employment depends on the increasing demands of the current job. In other words, focusing on the negative aspects of stressful situations where employees suffer from job insecurity can lead to a threat appraisal of it.

Stressors appraised as threatening elicit negative emotions (Folkman & Lazarus, 1988; Mitchell et al., 2019; Zhang et al., 2021). Previous studies have proven that a threat appraisal of encounters could lead to negative emotions (Chu et al., 2022). This is because a threat appraisal of stressors may result in greater focus on the potential harm or difficulties one may encounter when co** with stressful situations, which may lead to psychological distress. For example, Tuckey et al. (2015) pointed out that threat appraisal of stressors is not only associated with increased psychological distress and emotional exhaustion, but also reduces dedication because the perceived threat is associated with negative emotions (e.g., anxiety, fear, and worry), thereby jeopardizing basic psychological needs, such as maintaining a positive self-image. In the present study, we argue that job insecurity may elicit a threat appraisal that, in turn, motivates individuals to focus on impending negative consequences if they fail to combat the threatening situation, leaving the job-insecure employees more vulnerable to psychological distress. In short, we expect job-insecure employees to be more inclined to appraise their work situation as threatening, thus increasing the likelihood of being subjected to psychological distress. Hence, we propose the following hypothesis:

  • Hypothesis 1. Threat appraisal positively mediates the relationship between job insecurity and psychological distress.

Challenge appraisal as a mediator

Challenge appraisal refers to “an appraisal in which the perception of danger does not exceed the perception of abilities or resources to cope with the stressor” (Tomaka et al., 1993, p. 248). A stressful situation wherein employees suffer from job insecurity may also be appraised as a challenge. As a stressor, job insecurity may elicit a positive co** process by stimulating employees’ positive emotions (i.e., enthusiasm) and creativity to change the state of being unsafe (Jiang et al., 2022). In this way, they may view job insecurity as an opportunity to improve their competence and prove themselves capable enough to avoid being made redundant. Furthermore, job-insecure employees can also be encouraged by the potential for positive consequences concerning the avenues for career growth (Shoss et al., 2022), such as self-improvement in professional skills, employability, and irreplaceability (Balz & Schuller, 2021), as well as potential rewards. Overall, a focus on the positive aspects (e.g., opportunities for growth and potential for personal gain) of stressful situations where employees suffer from job insecurity may result in the stressors being appraised as a challenge.

Stressors appraised as a challenge instigate positive emotional reactions (Folkman & Lazarus, 1985; Ma et al., 2021). Such an appraisal of encounters has been found to benefit mental health, because challenge appraisal of stressors leads to focus on the potential opportunities and growth from stressful situations, which leads to the unlikely outcome of psychological distress. For instance, Kraimer et al. (2022) found that stressful job demands (e.g., international travel demands) increase thriving through challenge appraisals. In the present study, job insecurity may elicit a challenge appraisal, implying that individuals can find out the hidden opportunities in the situation. In turn, such a positive co** process enables them to escape psychological distress. Therefore, we expect that job-insecure employees are more inclined to appraise the stressful situation where they suffer from job insecurity as challenging, making them less likely to experience psychological distress. Hence, we propose the following hypothesis:

  • Hypothesis 2. Challenge appraisal negatively mediates the relationship between job insecurity and psychological distress.

Cognitive reappraisal as a moderator

Psychological distress can be harmful to mental health and has been documented to be associated with negative outcomes (Prudenzi et al., 2021). Individuals, therefore, are motivated to seek to relieve psychological distress using emotion regulation strategies (Gullo et al., 2022; Ye et al., 2022b). Cognitive reappraisal is one such emotion regulation strategy, referring to “a form of cognitive change that involves construing a potentially emotion-eliciting situation in a way that changes its emotional impact” (Gross & John, 2003, p. 349). Such a strategy plays a protective role in mitigating the effects of stressors induced by the COVID-19 pandemic on psychological well-being. For example, the more frequent use of cognitive reappraisal renders individuals who have adverse life experiences less vulnerable to psychological distress (Boyes et al., 2016), thus mitigating the detrimental impact of pandemic-related stressors on rumination (Ye et al., 2022a). In the present study, we expect that the impact of pandemic-related job insecurity on psychological distress varies with the habitual use of reappraisal to reduce negative feelings and anxiety associated with an emotionally impactful experience by positively changing the quality of an emotional response.

As noted by Gross and John (2003), cognitive reappraisal enables individuals to “negotiate stressful situations by taking an optimistic attitude, reinterpreting what they find stressful, and making active efforts to repair bad moods” (p. 360). In line with this notion, cognitive reappraisal can serve as an effective emotion regulation strategy in mitigating psychological distress deriving from job insecurity induced by the pandemic. Specifically, mass layoffs during the COVID-19 outbreak indicate that job insecurity should be an important implication of employees’ perceptions of this major global event (Lin et al., 2021), subsequently leading to a series of negative emotional reactions, such as exhaustion (McCarthy et al., 2021) and burnout (Rapp et al., 2021). Job-insecure employees who habitually use a cognitive reappraisal in the face of stressful situations, where employees suffer from job insecurity, may be more inclined to find out the positive side of their stressful experiences and make active efforts to relieve job insecurity by spinning the feeling of uncertainty into enthusiasm, making them less likely to feel and experience psychological distress. Therefore, we propose the following hypothesis:

  • Hypothesis 3. Cognitive reappraisal negatively moderates the positive relationship between job insecurity and psychological distress, such that the relationship is weaker when cognitive reappraisal is high.

The use of cognitive reappraisal enables individuals to reinterpret the meaning of emotional stimuli (Doerig et al., 2021; Gross & John, 2003), which refers to stressful situations where employees suffer from job insecurity. However, the interpretation of the meaning of a stressful situation can be not exclusively threatening but challenging. Accordingly, the moderating effect of the reappraisal emotion regulation strategy may vary in stress appraisals. In this case, the moderating effect of job-insecure employees’ use of cognitive reappraisal on psychological distress via threat appraisal may differ from that via challenge appraisal of stressful situations, in which employees suffer from job insecurity induced by the COVID-19 pandemic (Lian et al., 2022).

Employees who habitually use cognitive reappraisal can take a more optimistic attitude when encountering a stressful situation (Doerig et al., 2021; Gross & John, 2003), which means they are more likely to be aware of new information that unveils the positive side of a stressful situation where employees suffer from job insecurity and look for a new angle that makes a difference to change adverse situations. Based on Hypotheses 1, 2, and 3, job-insecure employees who more frequently use cognitive reappraisal may be less likely to evaluate their stressful experiences as threatening but more likely as challenging, thus leaving them less vulnerable to psychological distress. Specifically, more frequent use of cognitive reappraisal is expected to mitigate the psychological distress among job-insecure employees via less threat appraisal, but more challenge appraisal. Therefore, we propose the following hypotheses:

  • Hypothesis 4a. Cognitive reappraisal negatively moderates the indirect positive relationship between job insecurity and psychological distress via threat appraisal, such that the relationship is weaker when cognitive reappraisal is high.

  • Hypothesis 4b. Cognitive reappraisal positively moderates the indirect negative relationship between job insecurity and psychological distress via challenge appraisal, such that the relationship is stronger when cognitive reappraisal is high.

Method

Participants and procedure

It has been widely discussed in mass media and empirical studies and by the ILO that the economic slump caused by the COVID-19 pandemic led to employment uncertainty and job insecurity (Blanuša et al., 2021; Chen & Eyoun, 2021; Lin et al., 2021), which, in turn, affected employees’ psychological well-being (Khudaykulov et al., 2022). Almost all industries are affected by the global economic downturn, although the extent to which industries are hit by the pandemic vary. Thus, a sample of employees (i.e., those who had a job before and during the pandemic) from various industries is suitable for us to examine how and when job insecurity associated with the COVID-19 pandemic is linked to psychological distress.

We adopted a convenient sampling method to recruit participants from different industries and locations in China. The data collection was administrated from July 2022 to September 2022. We reached 1019 participants from 23 provinces across China via social media (WeChat) and a professional online survey platform (Sojump). We used a very popular social media platform in China (WeChat) for data collection (Lin et al., 2021; Zhou et al., 2020). By posting the advertisement on the WeChat groups and on WeChat moments, we made sure that our advertisement appealed mostly to employees. In our advertisement, we highlighted that only the employed were invited to participate in this online survey. Then, we posted our online survey on a widely used professional online survey platform (www.sojump.com), which enabled us to conveniently reach employees from various industries across China (Deng et al., 2018; Ferris et al., 2018; Zhou et al., 2020). Taken together, we recruited respondents who came from more than 10 different industries (e.g., the accounting industry and the state industry).

To exclude the non-targeted people (e.g., college students), we inserted a screen item asking whether the respondents held a job (i.e., must be employed before and during the COVID-19 pandemic) at the beginning of the survey. Those who were non-worker respondents were immediately stopped from filling out our questionnaire. In contrast, the eligible respondents were directed to the next page of our online questionnaire. We obtained written consent from all participants before conducting our tests online. The participants voluntarily completed a battery of tests (i.e., job insecurity, threat appraisal, challenge appraisal, cognitive reappraisal, and psychological distress) and demographic information (including gender, age, and work experience). Following Lin et al.’s (2021) recommendation, two attention check items were embedded in the questionnaire to identify careless respondents who failed to follow instructions. Those who completed the questionnaire received a reward of US$0.72.

We received a total of 1019 responses. To ensure the quality of our data, we removed careless respondents prior to further data analysis. Specifically, 97 respondents (a response rate of 9.52%) who did not pass one or both the attention check items (i.e., “This is an attention check item. Please select ‘never’ as the answer” and “This is an attention check item. Please select ‘disagree’ as the answer”) were excluded for further analysis. Such deletion is plausible because careless responses can bias results substantially (Ward et al., 2017).

Finally, we retained a sample of 922 (a response rate of 90.48%) respondents for hypothesis testing. In addition, we compared the demographic variables and outcomes of the 97 deleted respondents with those of the 922 final respondents to check the potential response bias due to the deletion of careless respondents. No significant difference was found between the two groups in terms of gender (χ2 = 0.004, p = 0.95, n.s.), age (t = 0.33, p = 0.74, n.s.), work experience (t = 0.62, p = 0.53, n.s.), and psychological distress (t = −0.43, p = 0.67, n.s.). Hence, the final sample of 922 was eligible for further analysis. Among the participants, 596 (64.6%) were women and 326 (35.4%) were men. Their ages ranged from 19 to 66 years, with a mean age of 31.01 years (SD = 7.34). The average work experience was 6.16 years (SD = 4.10).

Measure

Job insecurity

We measured job insecurity using a seven-item scale (Hellgren et al., 1999). The participants were instructed to recall and rate their feelings to indicate how often they felt a sense of powerlessness to maintain continuity and stability of their current employment due to the COVID-19 pandemic during the past month on a 5-point Likert scale from 1 (never) to 5 (quite often). One sample item is “I am worried about having to leave my job before I would like to.” The Cronbach’s alpha of job insecurity was 0.91 in this study.

Threat appraisal

We measured threat appraisal using a three-item scale (Li et al., 2017). The participants were instructed to recall and indicate their agreement with the negative statements about their evaluation of stressor and their resources to cope with them during the past week. Each item was rated on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). One sample item is “[The stressful situation] may create the possibility of appearing incompetent.” The Cronbach’s alpha of threat appraisal was 0.86 in this study.

Challenge appraisal

We measured challenge appraisal using a four-item scale (Li et al., 2017). The participants were instructed to recall and indicate their agreement with positive statements about their evaluation of stressor and their resources to cope with them during the past week. Each item was rated on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). One sample item is “[The stressful situation] provides opportunities to be recognized by supervisors and my organization.” The Cronbach’s alpha of challenge appraisal was 0.84 in this study.

Cognitive reappraisal

We measured cognitive reappraisal using a six-item scale, a subscale from the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (Gross & John, 2003). The participants were instructed to recall and rate each item on a 7-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree) to indicate to what extent they habitually use cognitive reappraisal as an emotion regulation strategy during the past week. One sample item is “When I want to feel more positive emotions, I change the way I’m thinking about the situation.” The Cronbach’s alpha of cognitive reappraisal was 0.88 in this study.

Psychological distress

We assessed psychological distress using the 16-item distress subscale from the Four-Dimensional Symptom Questionnaire (Terluin et al., 2004), designed to assess distress and other mental health problems in a working population. The participants were asked to recall the occurrence of statements for each item during the past week on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (no complaints) to 5 (very often/continuously). One sample item is “Did you ever have fleeting images of any upsetting event(s) that you have experienced?” The Cronbach’s alpha of psychological distress was 0.94 in this study.

Data analysis strategy

Prior to statistical analyses, we conducted Little’s (1988) missing completely at random (MCAR) test. Results showed that our missing data were missing at random, with χ2(2638) = 3416.14 (p < 0.01). Under the MAR assumption, we handled missing data via the full information maximum likelihood (FIML) estimation because it “perform better than most alternative missing data strategies (listwise deletion, pairwise deletion, mean substitution)” (Kam et al., 2016, p. 1471). In line with most recent studies (Haynes et al., 2022; Lin et al., 2022), we implemented FIML estimation in Mplus 8.3 using its default setting.

We calculated the means, standard deviations, and correlations among all variables using SPSS 26.0. We tested all the hypotheses with Mplus 8.3 (Muthén & Muthén, 1998–2019), with 5000 bias-corrected bootstrap samples and 95% confidence intervals (CI).

Results

Common method bias

We addressed the common method bias by following statistical remedies (Podsakoff et al., 2012). We introduced a latent common method factor to our proposed model. The results showed that the latent common method factor did not account for substantial variance in the indicator variables (i.e., the common latent factor explains less than 1% variance), indicating that common method bias would not seriously affect our results. Consistently, the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) results for single-factor model fit were not acceptable [χ2 = 9309.56, df = 594, comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.51, Tucker–Lewis’s index (TLI) = 0.48, root-mean-square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.13, standardized root-mean-square residual (SRMR) = 0.14]. These results indicate that common method variance is not a serious concern in our study.

Measurement model

We conducted a CFA using Mplus 8.3 to confirm the discriminant validity of our focal variables before hypotheses testing. Then, we set a baseline model with five factors (i.e., job insecurity, threat appraisal, challenge appraisal, cognitive reappraisal, and psychological distress) and compared it with all the alternative models. The results indicated that the baseline model fit the data well (χ2 = 1233.97, df = 584, CFI = 0.96, TLI = 0.96, RMSEA = 0.04, SRMR = 0.03) and considered substantially better than any alternative models.

In addition, we examined the factor loadings, composite reliability (CR), and average variance extracted (AVE) to evaluate the convergent and discriminant validity of our focal variables. The results in Table 1 show that factor loadings ranged from 0.66 to 0.84; CR exceeded 0.70 ranging from 0.84 to 0.95, and AVE exceeded 0.5 ranging from 0.51 to 0.69. The square roots of AVEs were greater than the corresponding correlation coefficients (see Table 2). These results suggested that our focal variables (i.e., job insecurity, threat appraisal, challenge appraisal, cognitive reappraisal, and psychological distress) all had acceptable convergent and discriminant validity (Fornell & Larcker, 1981).

Table 1 Validity analysis
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Table 2 Descriptive statistics and correlation matrix
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Descriptive statistics

The means, standard deviations, and correlations among all variables in this study are presented in Table 2. As the results showed, job insecurity was positively associated with threat appraisal (r = 0.27, p < 0.01), challenge appraisal (r = 0.16, p < 0.01), and psychological distress (r = 0.24, p < 0.01). Psychological distress was positively associated with threat appraisal (r = 0.32, p < 0.01) but negatively associated with challenge appraisal (r = −0.19, p < 0.01). Cognitive reappraisal was negatively related to threat appraisal (r = −0.26, p < 0.01) and psychological distress (r = −0.30, p < 0.01) but positively related to challenge appraisal (r = 0.28, p < 0.01).

Hypotheses testing

Hypothesis 1 predicted that the relationship between job insecurity and psychological distress is mediated by threat appraisal. The results showed that job insecurity was positively related to threat appraisal (B = 0.39, SE = 0.04, p < 0.01), and threat appraisal was positively related to psychological distress (B = 0.15, SE = 0.03, p < 0.01). We further tested the mediation effect using path analysis with 5000 bootstrap samples bias corrected 95% CI. The results revealed that the indirect effect of job insecurity on psychological distress via threat appraisal (indirect effect = 0.06, 95% CI [0.04, 0.09]) was positively significant, thus supporting Hypothesis 1.

Hypothesis 2 postulated that the relationship between job insecurity and psychological distress is mediated by challenge appraisal. The results showed that job insecurity was positively related to challenge appraisal (B = 0.17, SE = 0.04, p < 0.01) and challenge appraisal was negatively related to psychological distress (B = −0.13, SE = 0.03, p < 0.01). We further tested the mediation effect using path analysis (bootstrap = 5000; 95% CI). The indirect effect of job insecurity on psychological distress via challenge appraisal (indirect effect = −0.02, 95% CI [−0.04, −0.01]) was negatively significant, thus supporting Hypotheses 2.

Hypothesis 3 stated that cognitive reappraisal negatively moderates the positive relationship between job insecurity and psychological distress. The results showed that the interaction of job insecurity and cognitive reappraisal was negatively related to psychological distress (B = −0.09, SE = 0.02, p < 0.01). We used the approach proposed by Aiken et al. (1991) to investigate this interaction further. As illustrated in Fig. 2, the positive relationship between job insecurity and psychological distress was weaker when cognitive reappraisal was high (B = 0.12, SE = 0.05, p < 0.05) than low (B = 0.40, SE = 0.05, p < 0.01), with a significant difference between these two effects (difference index = −0.28, 95% CI [−0.41, −0.13]). Thus, Hypothesis 3 was supported.

Fig. 2
figure 2

Interaction between job insecurity and cognitive reappraisal on psychological distress

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Hypothesis 4a predicted that cognitive reappraisal negatively moderates the indirect effect of job insecurity on psychological distress via threat appraisal. The results showed that job insecurity and cognitive reappraisal significantly interacted to predict threat appraisal (B = −0.14, SE = 0.03, p < 0.01). As illustrated in Fig. 3, the relationship between job insecurity and threat appraisal was weaker at high cognitive reappraisal (B = 0.18, SE = 0.06, p < 0.01) than at low cognitive reappraisal (B = 0.60, SE = 0.06, p < 0.01), with a significant difference between these two effects (difference index = −0.42, 95% CI [−0.59, −0.26]). Following the recommendations of Preacher and Hayes (2008), we found that the indirect effect of job insecurity on psychological distress via threat appraisal was weaker at high cognitive reappraisal (indirect effect = 0.03, 95% CI [0.01, 0.05]) than at low cognitive reappraisal (indirect effect = 0.09, 95% CI [0.06, 0.13]), with a significant difference between these two effects (difference index = −0.06, 95% CI [−0.10, −0.03]). Thus, Hypothesis 4a was supported.

Fig. 3
figure 3

 Interaction between job insecurity and cognitive reappraisal on threat appraisal

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Hypothesis 4b predicted that cognitive reappraisal positively moderates the indirect effect of job insecurity on psychological distress via challenge appraisal. The results showed that job insecurity and cognitive reappraisal significantly interacted to predict challenge appraisal (B = 0.10, SE = 0.02, p < 0.01). As illustrated in Fig. 4, the relationship between job insecurity and challenge appraisal was stronger at high cognitive reappraisal (B = 0.32, SE = 0.05, p < 0.01) than at low cognitive reappraisal (B = 0.02, SE = 0.06, ns), with a significant difference between these two effects (difference index = 0.31, 95% CI [0.17, 0.44]). Furthermore, we found that the indirect effect of job insecurity on psychological distress via challenge appraisal was stronger at high cognitive reappraisal (indirect effect = −0.04, 95% CI [−0.07, −0.02]) than at low cognitive reappraisal (indirect effect = −0.002, 95% CI [−0.02, 0.01]), with a significant difference between these two effects (difference index = −0.04, 95% CI [−0.07, −0.02]). Thus, Hypothesis 4b was supported.

Fig. 4
figure 4

 Interaction between job insecurity and cognitive reappraisal on challenge appraisal

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Discussion

Although people intuitively associate job insecurity with psychological distress, we draw upon transactional theory (Lazarus & Folkman, 1987) to propose and test a moderated mediation model demonstrating how and when job insecurity associated with the COVID-19 pandemic causes variance in psychological distress. As hypothesized, our findings based on 922 employees in different industries revealed that job insecurity enhanced psychological distress by increasing job-insecure employees’ threat appraisal but inhibited psychological distress by increasing their challenge appraisal. Furthermore, when employees’ cognitive reappraisal was high, the mediating effects of threat appraisal and challenge appraisal on the relationship between job insecurity and psychological distress became weaker and stronger, respectively. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed below.

Theoretical implications

The findings of the present study offer several meaningful theoretical implications that contribute to the existing literature in several ways.

First, our results indicate that job insecurity indirectly leads to employees’ psychological distress via threat appraisal, whereas it indirectly inhibits their psychological distress via challenge appraisal, supporting the mediating roles of two paradoxical stress appraisals (i.e., threat appraisal and challenge appraisal) on the relationship between job insecurity and psychological distress. These findings suggest that individuals are likely to experience psychological distress if they hold a threat appraisal of stressful situations where they suffer from job insecurity associated with the pandemic and are unlikely to suffer it if they hold a challenge appraisal. Such findings reveal paradoxical underlying mechanisms of psychological distress deriving from job insecurity. In this way, the present study substantiates two opposite mediating effects of stress appraisals linking job insecurity to psychological distress simultaneously.

Importantly, our findings about the mediating role of stress appraisals in the present study help reveal the underlying cognitive mechanisms of how job insecurity associated with the COVID-19 pandemic relates to employees’ stress appraisals and hence psychological distress. Specifically, although previous research has proposed and highlighted the double-edged sword effects of job insecurity on individuals’ emotional reactions (Lian et al., 2022; Rolin et al., 2022) demonstrating people’s varied psychological responses to the COVID-19 pandemic due to stress appraisals. For example, Rolin et al. (2022) found that higher levels of threat appraisal significantly predicted psychological distress (i.e., anxiety and depression) in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic, whereas Chu et al. (2022) demonstrated that a challenge appraisal of stressful situations has a key relationship with positive outcomes, such as growth.

In addition to these consistencies, our examination of both threat appraisal and challenge appraisal as mediators of the relationship between job insecurity and psychological distress expands previous studies from two aspects. On the one hand, our findings provide empirical support for the inhibiting effect of challenge appraisal on psychological distress, demonstrating that challenge appraisal not only increases positive outcomes such as growth in Chu et al.’s (2022) research but also attenuates negative outcomes. On the other hand, our findings add to the extant research by elucidating two coexistent pathways linking job insecurity and psychological distress simultaneously, indicating that how people appraise a stressful situation makes a difference in psychological well-being against the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Second, our results reveal that employees’ cognitive reappraisal plays an important protective and moderating role in the respective direct and indirect relationships between job insecurity and psychological distress via threat appraisal and challenge threat. That is, the more frequent use of cognitive reappraisal mitigates the direct and indirect effects of job insecurity on psychological distress via threat appraisal but intensifies the indirect effect of job insecurity on psychological distress via challenge appraisal. This pattern of findings suggests that employees become less vulnerable to psychological distress when they deploy cognitive reappraisal as an emotion regulation strategy in responding to stressful situations. In this case, individual differences in emotion regulation strategies deserve more attention as they can help explicate when COVID-19-related stress exerts influence on employees’ stress appraisals and, ultimately, on their psychological well-being. The present study, therefore, provides empirical evidence for the protective and moderating effects of cognitive reappraisal in mitigating psychological distress against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Notably, our findings about the moderating effect of cognitive reappraisal extend our knowledge of when job insecurity associated with the COVID-19 pandemic relates to employees’ stress appraisals that, in turn, relate to psychological distress. It does so by identifying cognitive reappraisal as a protective factor in mitigating the direct and indirect impact of job insecurity on psychological distress. In this regard, Ahrens et al. (2021) proposed that future research should identify “possible protective factors and mechanisms, i.e., positive appraisal of the COVID-19 pandemic and emotion regulation, for stable mental health” (p. 9). Recent studies have identified and examined the mitigating effect of protective factors (e.g., mindfulness and resilience) on psychological distress induced by the COVID-19 pandemic (Askari et al., 2022; Chen & Eyoun, 2021). In comparison, there has been little attempt to identify cognitive-based protective factors, such as emotion regulation strategy, which can help mitigate psychological distress. With this in mind, the present study addresses this gap by introducing cognitive reappraisal as a boundary condition for when job insecurity might lead to or inhibit psychological distress based on transactional theory. Hence, the present study broadens the extant literature by identifying cognitive reappraisal as a cognitive-based emotion regulation strategy to attenuate psychological distress. Such an advancement of knowledge drawn from the present study makes it a response to Ahrens et al.’s (2021) recent call for further research on emotion regulation strategies in mitigating the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on psychological well-being.

Our findings are not only in consonance with the well-documented research on the protective role of cognitive reappraisal (Boyes et al., 2016), but also add to the extant literature on how cognitive reappraisal helps mitigate the effects of the ongoing pandemic on psychological well-being (Gullo et al., 2022; Ye et al., 2022b). For example, our findings concerning the mitigating effect of cognitive reappraisal are in line with Boyes et al.’s (2016) finding that cognitive reappraisal buffers the relationship between adverse life experiences and psychological distress. While the present study also adds to the research on how cognitive reappraisal predicts negative psychological outcomes in the most recent COVID-19 pandemic literature. Furthermore, we expand Gullo et al.’s (2022) research which examined the mediating effect of cognitive reappraisal on the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and psychological distress by examining the moderating effect of cognitive reappraisal that interacts with job insecurity to predict stress appraisals and hence psychological distress. Our findings demonstrate that cognitive reappraisal serves as a buffer in attenuating the link between psychological distress and stressful situations, apart from acting as a bridge that between them.

Finally, our results confirmed the mediating roles of stress appraisals (i.e., threat appraisal and challenge appraisal) and the moderating role of cognitive reappraisal in the relationship between job insecurity and psychological distress. These findings suggest that cognitive-based factors (i.e., threat appraisal, challenge appraisal, and cognitive reappraisal) play important roles in individuals’ emotional reactions (e.g., psychological distress) to stimulus. Therefore, our findings extend transactional theory by offering empirical evidence for the role of cognition in emotion. Specifically, the central assumption of transactional theory is that stress appraisal plays a mediating role in the emotional reaction to a stimulus (Lazarus & Folkman, 1987). The present study extends this notion by examining the mediating role of the two stress appraisals on the relationship between the stressful situation, where employees suffer from job insecurity induced by the COVID-19 pandemic and psychological distress. In addition, we go one step further to incorporate cognitive reappraisal as an emotion regulation strategy, investigating when job insecurity and reappraisal interact to predict stress appraisals, and hence psychological well-being. In this case, the present study contributes to transactional theory by providing empirical evidence for its central tenet that cognition plays an important role in emotion.

Furthermore, our findings are in line with Boyes et al.’s (2016) empirical research in that we consolidate the notion that cognition factors paly both mediating and moderating role in individuals’ emotional reactions when encountering stressful situations. We further expand their research by elucidating and examining how job insecurity interacted with cognitive reappraisal to predict psychological distress indirectly via both two stress appraisals. Hence, we extend Boyes et al.’s (2016) research by clarifying and substantiating that the interaction between cognitive factors and stressful situations not only predict psychological distress directly, but also affect it by sha** people’s stress appraisals.

Practical implications

The findings of the present study provide several practical implications to minimize psychological distress among job-insecure employees during the COVID-19 pandemic.

First, our findings indicate that job insecurity is a double-edged sword when it comes to psychological distress. On the one hand, it positively affects psychological distress through the mediating effect of threat appraisal, but on the other hand, it is negatively associated with psychological distress through challenge appraisal. In this case, managers should take active measures to attenuate the inducing effect and improve the inhibiting effect of job insecurity on psychological distress. For example, managers should guide employees who may suffer from job insecurity to face stressful situations in a positive way. In particular, they can train employees to emphasize the positive (e.g., opportunities for self-improvement) rather than the negative meanings of stressful situations. Such guidance is important for job-insecure employees to make challenge appraisals that enable them to focus on the positive aspects of stressful situations against the COVID-19 pandemic, thus improving the inhibiting effect of job insecurity on psychological distress.

Additionally, our findings reveal the coexistent and opposite mediating effects of two stress appraisals that link job insecurity to psychological distress, suggesting a determining role of insecure employees’ cognition to prevent psychological distress. Therefore, we advise that job-insecure employees keep an open mind to avoid certain mindsets (e.g., negative) when encountering stressful situations. It can be helpful for them to reduce psychological distress if they identify the potential opportunities that go with stressful situations.

Second, our findings demonstrate that cognitive reappraisal attenuates the direct and indirect inducing effects of job insecurity on psychological distress. Therefore, improving employees’ cognitive reappraisal may be an effective strategy to buffer the inducing effect of job insecurity on psychological distress directly or indirectly via threat appraisal. For instance, organizations should provide employees opportunities to improve their cognitive reappraisal skills. In this case, incorporating reappraisal training into human resources development projects should be a valuable way because cognitive reappraisal skills can be obtained through training and practices as recommended by researchers (Denny & Ochsner, 2014; Doerig et al., 2021).

Meanwhile, employees should make efforts to cultivate their abilities to combat stressful situations and prevent distress in various ways. For example, we suggest that employees take all sorts of possible ways to improve their cognitive reappraisal skills, such as attending existing training projects in the current organization, taking initiatives in self-learning, seeking help from more experienced colleagues, or taking some training projects that are designed to educate people on how to deploy emotion regulation strategies. However, the cultivated knowledge of cognitive reappraisal skills itself does not necessarily result in less psychological distress. It is rather important for employees, particularly those who suffer from job insecurity associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, to practice and utilize their cognitive reappraisal skills persistently. The habitual use of cognitive reappraisal as an emotion regulation strategy in responding to stressful situations should be useful because stressful situations can be long-lasting, thereby requiring sustained efforts. In other words, we suggest that employees cultivate and practice their cognitive reappraisal skills persistently to minimize the negative psychological impacts of stressful situations.

Limitations and future research directions

Despite the contributions of this study, it has several limitations that should be addressed in future research. First, as the present study is conducted in China, future research should investigate these relationships in other countries to improve the generalizability of our findings. Although the COVID-19 pandemic is a global phenomenon, the extent to which job insecurity has been exacerbated by this pandemic and its impact on psychological well-being may vary.

Second, we were unable to make causal inferences among our study variables due to the cross-sectional design. Hence future research can conduct a longitudinal or experimental design to verify correlations among job insecurity, emotion regulation strategy (i.e., cognitive reappraisal), stress appraisal (i.e., threat appraisal and challenge appraisal), and psychological distress.

Third, we only focused on the one cognitive-based emotion regulation strategy that reduces the psychological distress among job-insecure employees, while leaving out other potentially effective moderators in mitigating the negative feelings and anxiety associated with emotionally impactful experiences or stressful situations. Therefore, we suggest that the issues raised in the present study could be extended to incorporate other moderators that may play the protective role of emotion regulation in mitigating the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on psychological well-being. For example, future research can identify factors that motivate a challenge appraisal rather than a threat appraisal as potential moderators or factors that activate the self-regulation mechanism involving optimism.

Conclusions

The present study extends the research on the relationship between COVID-19-related stress and psychological well-being by elucidating the cognitive mechanisms of how job insecurity translates job insecurity into psychological distress via stress appraisals and identifying cognitive reappraisal as a protective factor in preventing psychological distress. Our findings reveal that the variance in stress appraisals among job-insecure employees impacts employees’ emotional reactions. By demonstrating the individual differences in stress appraisals among job-insecure employees, we help reveal how the double-edged effect of COVID-19-related stress exerts influence on psychological well-being by investigating the mediating effects of two paradoxical stress appraisals (i.e., threat appraisal and challenge appraisal) on the relationship between job insecurity and psychological distress. Our findings reveal that threat appraisal among job-insecure employees is likely to cause psychological distress, whereas challenge appraisal does the opposite. In addition, we identified cognitive reappraisal as one of the effective emotion regulation strategies in mitigating psychological distress. Specifically, we found that higher frequent use of cognitive reappraisal mitigates psychological distress among job-insecure employees, and buffers the mediating effect of threat appraisal, but intensifies the mediating effect of challenge appraisal.