How does mindfulness affect media employees' creative engagement? The chain-mediation model of institutional pressures and career adaptability.

Background: Artificial intelligence is reshaping media production, forcing professionals to confront stringent institutional pressures and rising innovation demands. Although employee mindfulness is a critical psychological resource, its mechanism for fostering creative engagement under high constraints remains unclear. Objective: This study examines how employee mindfulness influences creative engagement through a chain-mediation model of institutional pressures and career adaptability among Chinese media professionals. Methods: Data from 804 media professionals were analyzed using hierarchical regression and PROCESS Macro (Model 6) to test direct and indirect effects, controlling for demographic variables. Results: (1) Employee mindfulness, institutional pressures, and career adaptability each have significant direct predictive effects on media professionals' creative engagement; (2) Institutional pressures and career adaptability play a chain mediating role in the relationship between employee mindfulness and creative engagement, with this mediating effect involving three pathways: employee mindfulness → institutional pressures → creative engagement (indirect effect = 0.094, 95% CI = [0.060, 0.134], accounting for 25.54% of the total effect); employee mindfulness → career adaptability → creative engagement (indirect effect = 0.069, 95% CI = [0.043, 0.098], accounting for 18.75% of the total effect); employee mindfulness → institutional pressures → career adaptability → creative engagement (indirect effect = 0.042, 95% CI = [0.027, 0.060], accounting for 11.41% of the total effect). Conclusion: Mindfulness promotes creative engagement by reducing institutional pressures and enhancing career adaptability, revealing a "cognitive restructuring-capability enhancement" mechanism. Findings offer theoretical and practical insights for balancing compliance and innovation in media organizations.