Regulatory Focus Mediates the Relationship Between Psychological Capital and Team Job Crafting: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Modern healthcare's increasing complexity requires team-based nursing care, yet the psychological mechanisms of nurses' team job crafting remain under explored. This study aims to explore the association between psychological capital and team job crafting in clinical nurses and to test the mediating effect of regulatory focus. Methods: A cross-sectional design was employed, with 465 clinical nurses recruited from five hospitals in China. Data collection included a demographic questionnaire and three validated scales: the Psychological Capital Scale for Nurses, the Regulatory Focus Scale, and the Chinese version of the Team Job Crafting Scale. Data were analyzed using SPSS 25.0 for descriptive statistics and Amos 23.0 for structural equation modeling to examine the hypothesized path relationships. Results: =0.731) identified age, gender, length of service, higher sense of responsibility and confidence, and both promoting/defensive focus as significant predictors. Regulatory focus partially mediated the psychological capital-team job crafting (β=0.214, 95%CI [0.114,0.221]), accounting for 32.4% of the total effect. Conclusion: Clinical nurses demonstrated moderate team job crafting levels, suggesting room for improvement. Significant predictors included older older, female, and with long work experience. Regulatory focus emerged as both a direct predictor and partial mediator (32.4%) between psychological capital and team job crafting.