Mental health has become a public health concern worldwide. These concerns are increasing among young people [
1]. Individuals with mental health problems account for nearly 63% of suicide deaths in China. Furthermore, as China modernizes, people are facing severe mental health challenges [
2]. Studies have shown that mental health is strongly linked to personal well-being and social harmony [
3]. It is helpful to view these mental health problems in the framework proposed by American sociologist Dennis Wrong. He coined the term the “Oversocialized Conception of Man” to indicate that people are conditioned by society to contribute something. Every individual faces the problem that the differential impact of socialization processes conflict with each other. There may also be conflicts between the different roles a person plays in modern society. Therefore, individuals must adjust their roles and deal with conflicts that arise frequently in new situations [
4]. For employees, work and family are two inseparable aspects of life; yet, they may generate enormous stress and conflict. These experiences have a key impact on an individual’s mental health.
1.1. Work–Family Conflict and Mental Health State
Mental health refers to a state in which an individual has rational cognition, emotional stability, appropriate behavior, and harmonious interpersonal relationships and adapts to changes in the immediate environment during the process of growth and development [
5]. However, complex organizational and interpersonal relationships drive adults to deal with the demands of high work pressure and performance, which leads to a variety of psychological problems. Examining somatic symptoms (e.g., headache), anxiety/insomnia, social dysfunction (e.g., social withdrawal), and depression can help to clarify an individual’s mental health status [
6].
Work plays an essential role in life. Individuals strive to achieve occupational prestige and respect [
7]. Therefore, a positive working environment has benefits contributing to overall personal satisfaction. However, the pressure of juggling family and work may lead to role and interpersonal conflicts [
8]. Research shows that work–family conflict adversely impacts employees’ work and home life, general wellness, and other variables related to happiness [
9,
10].
Work–family conflict is mainly based on role theory [
11]. When an individual plays multiple, overlapping, and incompatible roles, the pressure generated by the role conflict causes psychological tension [
12]. Employees often struggle to cope with work and family demands [
11]. Different social roles create various levels of pressure and burden on individuals. Here, inter-role conflict outlines that “the role pressure of a member from one organization conflicts with that member’s role pressure from the other organization” [
13]. Work-to-family (WFC) and family-to-work conflict (FWC) reflect the degree of incompatibility between roles in the work and family domains; that is, “participation in the work (family) role is made more difficult by virtue of participation in the family (work) role” [
13]. The excessive demands of the work (family) role make it difficult to fulfill the role of family requirements (work). Therefore, the pressure between work and family leads to work–family conflict. Work can interfere with family life, and family life can also interfere with work. The “Dark Side of Work–Family Conflict” model shows that several studies have confirmed the negative relationship between work–family conflict and health, and individuals who feel a greater work–family conflict will experience more health problems [
14].
Frone et al. [
15] proposed a comprehensive model of work–family conflict. They found that work interferes with family owing to work pressure and commitment, leading to family conflicts. Moreover, family stress and commitment could result in family interfering with work, leading to work distress. As a general mechanism, the cross-domain model provides a theoretical basis for work–family conflict and health-related problems in China. Very often, people find it difficult to fulfill the requirements of one role owing to obstacles from the other. Therefore, they experience greater psychological pain owing to the difficulty in meeting role demands [
15,
16].
Goode [
17] proposed the theory of role strain. Individuals confronting different requirements for each role but having limited resources of time, energy, and attention to perform their duties also face an increasing possibility of conflict. Work and family are not fully compartmentalized. Thus, there is severe divergence and conflict generated by competing demands [
18]. When work interferes with household life, it is difficult to meet family demands; conversely, when family interferes with work, it becomes difficult for the individual to fulfill workplace obligations. This conflict increases psychological pressure, inducing stress and health problems [
13,
15].
Work and family are two important stages in life and achieving a balance between the two is vital. A harmonious development between the two can improve an individual’s quality of work and life and also improve the relationship between individuals and organizations, family members and peers, and enhance the overall well-being of individuals and families [
19].
An increasing number of people are aware of the relationship between family and work [
9]. Conflict between the two is often related to factors such as job burnout, life dissatisfaction, or other psychological distresses (such as depression) [
13,
15]. Previous studies showed that psychologists, nurses, social workers, and others working in hospitals or similar environments are often at risk of burnout, diminished subjective well-being, or poor mental health [
20,
21]. A meta-analysis showed that both work-to-family conflict (WFC) and family-to-work conflict (FWC) are associated with physical and mental health problems, such as depression and unhealthy physical conditions [
9]. Individuals with high levels of work–family conflict report depressive symptoms [
22,
23] and have poorer general health outcomes [
16]. Thus, work–family conflict has a key impact on an individual’s mental health outcomes. Therefore, we propose the following research hypotheses:
H1a. Work-to-family conflict (WFC) is associated with mental health problems.
H1b. Family-to-work conflict (FWC) is associated with mental health problems.
1.2. Mindfulness and Mental Health
Mindfulness is a form of meditation that derives from Buddhist meditation techniques. It involves cultivating a full, direct, and active awareness of experienced spiritual phenomena that are maintained from one moment to the next [
24]. An individual can observe all the phenomena (thoughts, emotions, and feelings) in an open and accepting manner without judging his or her own experiences [
25,
26,
27].
Mindfulness is an attribute of consciousness, and its relationship has also been widely observed [
28]. Mindfulness is often conceptualized as a character trait that is also observed in individuals who have not accepted mindfulness training [
29]. Kabat-Zinn [
30] proposed that mindfulness is a method of purposefully and non-judgmentally focusing on the present. Mindfulness comprises three core components: (1) being purposeful or intentional, (2) focusing on moment-by-moment experience, and (3) having a non-judgmental attitude [
31,
32,
33]. Mindfulness separates the individual from unconscious thoughts, behaviors, and unhealthy behavioral patterns, and it fosters conscious and self-approved behavioral regulation. It has long been associated with enhanced well-being.
Clinical psychologists combine mindfulness-based interventions with mental health treatment, arguing that the former can help individuals to recognize and regulate maladaptive thoughts, emotional responses, and automatic behaviors underlying various mental health problems [
32]. It is also observed that mindfulness means “waking up” from a “corpse-like” unconscious sleep, which helps individuals to observe and experience their present state. In addition to targeting depression and mood disorders, mindfulness-based interventions are effective in helping to treat mental health problems and physical disorders, including anxiety, anger, and psychiatric disorders, and in improving cognitive functioning and task performance in adults [
31,
34,
35]. Ryan and Deci [
36] demonstrated that mindfulness is positively associated with several aspects of mental health, such as higher levels of adaptive emotional regulation, vitality, positive influence, and life satisfaction. Furthermore, it can reduce the occurrence of psychiatric disorders and their negative impact on people [
27,
37,
38,
39]. Brown and Ryan [
29] demonstrated that there is a significant correlation between mindfulness and well-being, and mindfulness is associated with low levels of neuroticism, anxiety, depression, and negative affect.
Mindfulness-based interventions can significantly reduce stress levels, improve mood [
40], and predict negative emotions [
41]. Mindfulness has a significant negative correlation with three aspects of the mental health well-being of healthcare professionals [
42]. Thus, mindfulness-based interventions can effectively alleviate the occurrence of individual mental health problems.
H2. Mindfulness reduces the occurrence of mental health problems.
1.3. Sense of Control and Mental Health
In recent years, research on mental health has shown that mental health is the result of the combined effect of physiological, psychological, and social factors. However, given a common stimulus, the severity of mental health damage in individuals varies and is closely related to factors such as individual coping strategy, individual characteristics, and psychological control [
43].
Sense of control refers to the extent to which individuals believe they have personal rights and control over their lives and environment [
44], and the perceptions and evaluations they have when they believe that their abilities, efforts, and other internal factors affect and determine the development process and changes in external things [
45]. Burger and Arkin [
46] found that individual perceptions of control or predictability may be sufficient to alleviate feelings of helplessness, and perceptions of control or predictability over adverse events may alleviate learned helplessness. Several studies have shown a correlation between sense of control and physical and mental health [
47]. It is believed that sense of control helps people to positively adapt to stressful life situations and promotes physical health and emotional wellness [
48,
49]. People with a high sense of control act in a healthier manner when they believe that what they do will lead to a difference in outcomes [
47]. Broadly, as most objective conditions cannot be changed, people can also modify their individual experience of the objective environment through cognitive means, such as maintaining an optimistic attitude or diverting attention from such experiences, thereby minimizing the feeling of lack of control [
50]. Thompson and Prottas [
51] found that perceived control had a mediating effect on processing work–family conflict, and control played an important role in an individual’s life.
Beutell and Schneer [
52] found that sense of control mediated the relationship between work–family conflict and life satisfaction. Psychologists are concerned about who determines an individual’s behavior and the extent to which individuals can control and influence their living environment and be responsible for their behavior. A lack of sense of control can lead to behavioral problems, such as withdrawal and passive compliance, which are related to the persistence of anxiety, including social anxiety. Thus, sense of control plays a fundamental role in the formation and persistence of social anxiety. For example, sense of control mediates the relationship between safety behaviors, social environment, and social anxiety [
53,
54]. Jang et al. [
55] studied the relationship between perceived discrimination and mental health and found that sense of control plays an important role in mediating and moderating the relationship between perceived discrimination and mental health. In a study on the mental health of armed police officers, Pei et al. [
56] found that sense of control had a direct positive impact on armed police officers’ mental health. Their results showed that the higher an individual’s sense of control, the better their mental wellness. In a study on self-focused attention and social anxiety, Huang et al. [
57] found that sense of control mediated the relationship between self-awareness and social anxiety. Neupert et al. [
58] reported that lower levels of personal control increase sadness and stress, leading to physical health problems. Examining the relationship between life events and depression in elderly persons in Hong Kong and China, Chou and Chi [
59] found that sense of control played a mediating role between stressful life events and depression. Additionally, it regulated the occurrence of depression in the elderly. Furthermore, sense of personal control was found to play a partial mediating role in the relationship between psychological distress and reported discrimination experiences [
60].
H3. Sense of control reduces the occurrence of mental health problems.
1.4. Work–Family Conflict, Mindfulness, Sense of Control, and Mental Health
According to role balance theory, balancing roles positively is equivalent to treating each role with a focused and careful attitude. Mindfulness is being alert about the present moment that enables individuals to fully engage in each role with care and focus, as this is also beneficial to role conflict, and mindfulness can improve self-regulation [
29,
61]. Studies on mindfulness have shown that, compared to people with low scores in mindfulness, individuals with higher levels of mindfulness report less stress, anxiety, and depression symptoms and are more energetic and satisfied with their lives. By contrast, higher levels of mindfulness are associated with a better ability to self-regulate the ongoing internal emotional experience [
62]. Behavioral and social environmental factors related to social anxiety can change an individual’s sense of control, which affects an individual’s social anxiety. Specifically, if individuals use safety behaviors, they can increase their sense of control, thereby reducing anxiety. Conversely, adverse or negative thinking reduces an individual’s sense of control, increasing social anxiety [
63].
The impact of work–family conflict on mental health is also affected by self-awareness and sense of control. Therefore, mindfulness and sense of control are effective neutralizers. Studies on mindfulness-based interventions show that patients with cancer receiving mindfulness-based training believe they are in better control of their health and the external environment [
64]. Gootjes and Rassin [
65] reported that mindfulness is related to attention control in daily life. The higher the level of mindfulness, the stronger the perceived thought control. Examining the impact of work–family conflict on sleep quality among Chinese nurses, Liu et al. [
66] found that mindfulness played a mediating role in the relationship between work–family conflict and nurses’ sleep quality. Thus, a lower level of mindfulness was associated with poor sleep quality.
H4. Mindfulness and sense of control mediate the relationship between work–family conflict and mental health problems.
1.5. This Study
Studies show that work–family conflict seriously impacts an individual’s mental health, thereby leading to severe physical and psychological problems. Several studies have explored the impact of work environment, time, job burnout, and other factors on mental health, or simply focused on the impact of work–family conflict on mental health through sense of control, and rarely included mindfulness and sense of control in the research model concurrently. This research focuses on the mental health status of enterprise employees in western China. The main innovation points of this research are as follows: First, the subjects of this study have certain characteristics; here, the mental health status of employees belonging to enterprises and institutions in Northwest China is not common to that in previous studies. Second, the influencing factors selected in this study, including the mediating role of mindfulness and sense of control, have not been featured in existing studies on the mental health status of this group, which is somewhat novel. Furthermore, this study paves the way for some experimental studies to be carried out in follow-up research to enrich the results of this research. Thus, to expand the literature, we examined the impact of individual mindfulness and sense of control on the impact of work–family conflict on mental health to directly mitigate the psychological distress caused by the conflict from the individual itself and reduce the occurrence of mental health problems.