**5. Conclusions**

The present study represents the first attempt aimed at investigating the mediating role of social support in the relationship between EI and occupational stress, providing a contribution in which the three variables are jointly evaluated during the current global emergency. As the crisis that arose after the spread of the COVID-19 virus is still not under control, neither in Italy nor in other countries in the world, it is imperative to acknowledge which factors influence workers' stress in the current circumstances. Our findings offer an opportunity to better understand how these variables are related to occupational stress during the pandemic and provide useful insights to design future interventions aimed at ameliorating wellbeing in working contexts. Overall, the results of our study reported that, except for the OSI PSY, which was directly and indirectly predicted by EI, the other facets of occupational stress were negatively associated with EI only through the mediation of social support. Specifically, social support from family and friends showed a protective role in reducing occupational stress. From this perspective, our findings have practical implications, suggesting both health care services and organizations take care of employees' social relationships and promote and reinforce strong social ties. Specific interventions

programs with the purpose of making workers' social relationships stronger and more solid are highly recommended, with a particular focus on the relationships with family members and friends, as both sources of social support have a relevant function in preventing negative outcomes.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, G.D.V. and P.M.; methodology G.D.V. and P.F.; formal analysis, G.D.V.; investigation, G.D.V. and P.M.; data curation, G.D.V.; writing-original draft preparation, G.D.V.; writing-review and editing, P.F.; supervision, P.F.; project administration, G.D.V. and P.M. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** The study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Institutional Review Board (or Ethics Committee) of University of Enna "Kore" (UKE-IRBPSY-03.21.02).

**Informed Consent Statement:** Informed consent was obtained from all participants involved in the study.

**Data Availability Statement:** The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
