Background The risks of unhealthy working mood and physical and mental health problems are high in the workers of petrochemical enterprises. Resilience is a positive psychological factor, which can provide positive ability to manage stress and job burnout, relieve tension, depression, anxiety, and other psychological discomfort.

Objective To explore the moderating or mediating effect of resilience on the association between job burnout and sleep disorders in workers of petrochemical enterprises.

Methods A survey with questionnaire of general information, resilience, job burnout (including exhaustion, cynicism, and professional efficacy), and sleep disorders was conducted among 1087 workers who were selected by cluster sampling from a petrochemical enterprise in Henan Province in April 2022. Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis H test were used to test the differences of scores among different demographic groups. Resilience, job burnout (including exhaustion, cynicism, and professional efficacy), and sleep disorder scores were analyzed by partial correlation analysis. The moderating effect of resilience was examined by linear regression analysis, and the mediating effect of resilience by Bootstrap method.

Results  A total of 861 questionnaires were collected, of which 857 were effective, and the effective rate was 99.5%. The M (P₂₅, P₇₅) of job burnout score was 1.24 (0.65, 2.22) and the incidence of job burnout was 36.4% (312/857); the scores M (P₂₅, P₇₅) of exhaustion, cynicism, and professional efficacy were 1.40 (0.80, 3.00), 1.00 (0.20, 1.60), and 5.50 (4.00, 6.00), respectively. The M (P₂₅, P₇₅) of resilience score was 36.00 (30.00, 41.00). The M (P₂₅, P₇₅) of sleep disorder score was 11.00 (7.00, 15.00). The partial correlation analysis results showed that job burnout, exhaustion, and cynicism were negatively correlated with resilience (r=−0.387, −0.248, −0.247, P<0.01), and positively correlated with sleep disorders (r=0.455, 0.445, 0.357, P<0.01); professional efficacy was positively correlated with resilience (r=0.366, P<0.01) and negatively correlated with sleep disorders (r=−0.184, P<0.01); resilience was negatively correlated with sleep disorders (r=−0.349, P<0.01). The linear regression analysis results found that job burnout, exhaustion, and cynicism elevated the risk of sleep disorders (P<0.01), resilience lowered the risk of sleep disorders (P<0.01); but the relationship between job burnout (exhaustion, cynicism, and professional efficacy) and sleep disorders was not moderated by resilience (P＞0.05). The mediating effect test showed that resilience played a partial mediating role in the associations of job burnout, exhaustion, cynicism, and professional efficacy with sleep disorders, the mediating effects were 0.522 (95%CI: 0.283-0.777), 0.310 (95%CI: 0.188-0.453), 0.364 (95%CI: 0.228-0.524), −0.542 (95%CI: −0.741-−0.366) and the mediating effects accounted for 17.31%, 14.12%, 19.24%, and 64.72% of the total effects, respectively.

Conclusion The relationship between job burnout and sleep disorders is partially mediated by resilience among workers in the selected petrochemical company, but no moderating effect is found.