Cross-sectional study links stress, detachment and identity among Chinese new nurses

A multicenter cross-sectional study of 306 new nurses in China identified three profiles of professional identity, with lower-identity profiles associated with higher secondary traumatic stress but lower psychological detachment than the highest-identity group. The research included nurses with no more than two years of clinical experience from 10 hospitals across four Chinese provinces and municipalities.

Researchers used latent profile analysis to classify participants according to five dimensions of professional identity. Three groups emerged: High Identity Stable, which accounted for 23.53% of participants; Moderate Identity Normative, at 44.12%; and Low Identity Negative, at 32.35%. The profiles differed primarily in their overall level of professional identity, while showing broadly similar patterns across the five dimensions. The Moderate Identity Normative group was the largest of the three.

Psychological detachment and secondary traumatic stress were significantly associated with profile membership. Compared with the High Identity Stable profile, both the Moderate Identity Normative and Low Identity Negative profiles were associated with lower psychological detachment and higher secondary traumatic stress, with all reported P values below 0.001. The Low Identity Negative profile also had lower psychological detachment and higher secondary traumatic stress than the Moderate Identity Normative profile, with both differences again reported at P < 0.001. The findings therefore describe a graded association across the three identity profiles rather than a simple contrast between one distressed group and the remainder.

The study was guided by Conservation of Resources theory, which the investigators used to frame the analysis of psychological resources during new nurses’ adaptation to clinical practice. They performed Spearman correlation, univariate analyses and multinomial logistic regression to examine the relationships between psychological detachment, secondary traumatic stress and profile membership. The authors characterized psychological resource-oriented support as potentially relevant to professional adaptation, but the cross-sectional design did not establish whether professional identity, psychological detachment or secondary traumatic stress caused any of the observed profiles or outcomes. The results also describe the participating Chinese hospitals rather than all new nurses, and the one-time assessment cannot show how individual nurses’ identities or psychological states changed over time.

Subject of Research: Associations among professional identity profiles, psychological detachment and secondary traumatic stress among new nurses in China

Article Title: Latent profiles of professional identity among new nurses: associations with psychological detachment and secondary traumatic stress

Article References: Xu, J., Lin, K., & Zhang, L. (2026). Latent profiles of professional identity among new nurses: associations with psychological detachment and secondary traumatic stress. BMC Nursing. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-026-05558-z

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s12912-026-05558-z

Keywords: new nurses, professional identity, psychological detachment, secondary traumatic stress, latent profile analysis, cross-sectional study, Chinese hospitals, nursing workforce, professional adaptation, Latent, profiles, professional