Revealing the mechanism of stress generation for construction frontline professionals through development of structural stressors–coping–stress models

•Use mixed methods to examine how coping strategies mediate the influence of the stressors on the stress of construction frontline professionals.•Development of structural Stressors–Coping–Stress models for better understanding the stress issues of construction frontline professionals.•Reveal the mechanism of the stressors–stress interactions for employees in the stressful construction industry.