Journal of Happiness and Health

Given that work engagement is associated with well-being both in the workplace and in everyday life, this study examined factors associated with work engagement during the post-earthquake recovery period. According to JD-R theory, gratitude, prosocial motivation, and psychological capital may be personal resources associated with work engagement. Using two separate simple mediation models, this study examined: (1) the relationship between gratitude and work engagement through psychological capital, and (2) the relationship between prosocial motivation and work engagement through psychological capital. Data were collected between June and September 2025 from 406 employees in Malatya. The data were collected during the recovery and adaptation period, more than two years after the February 2023 earthquakes and following the October 2024 earthquake in Malatya. Using a cross-sectional design, data were collected through convenience sampling. The distribution of participants was balanced between women (55.1%) and men (44.4%), and the average age was 31.3 years (SD = 10.6). Pearson correlation and mediation analyses using Hayes’ PROCESS Macro v4.2 (Model 4) were conducted to examine the relationships among gratitude, prosocial motivation, psychological capital, and work engagement. Pearson correlation analyses showed positive associations among gratitude, prosocial motivation, psychological capital, and work engagement. Moreover, two separate simple mediation analyses indicated that psychological capital significantly accounted for the indirect associations of both gratitude and prosocial motivation with work engagement. These findings indicated that personal resources were associated with work engagement during post-earthquake recovery.