Examining the impact of job demands and resources on academician's mental health: the moderating role of religiosity in selected Malaysian public universities

The detrimental impact that higher education institutions' environments have on academicians' mental health has drawn greater prominence. The current climate of global education-competition places extreme expectations on academicians. Academicians at public higher education institutions are therefore susceptible to mental health due to the nature of the rigorous working conditions, highlighting that the prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress among academicians at higher education institutions three times higher than the general occupation. To investigate this issue further, this study integrates the Job-Demand Resource and Conservation of Resources Theory to examine the impact of various factors including job demands (workload, role conflict, work-family conflict, and family-work conflict) and job resources (social support, and supportive leadership) on academician's mental health. Additionally, this study examines the moderating role of religiosity in the relationship between job demands and job resources toward mental health among academicians. A crosssectional study was conducted among 340 academicians at the selected public universities in Malaysia. The data were analysed using SPSS software version 29.0. which supported 13 out of 36 hypotheses. The findings of the study confirmed that role conflict, work-family conflict, family work conflict, and social support act as significant factors affecting academicians' mental health, while no relationship was found between supportive leadership and mental health among academicians. This study also confirmed the moderating role of religiosity in the relationship between work-family conflict with academician's mental health. However, religiosity does not moderate the relationship between social support and supportive leadership and academician's mental health. These insights are valuable for government, higher education institutions, education professional bodies, academicians, policymakers and the public by helping to understand the factors driving mental health issues among academicians. Furthermore, this understanding support Malaysia's aim of nurturing human well-being in the higher education institution sectors and fostering a good quality of life among society.