Association patterns of work-family balance, perceived stress and turnover intentions among female medical workers in China (2022–2023): integration network and pathway analysis

Female healthcare workers often experience heightened stress and increased turnover intentions due to work-family imbalance, which significantly disrupts the normal functioning of the healthcare system. The work-family balance is a multidimensional construct, and the complex relationships among its various dimensions, stress levels, and turnover intentions remain unclear. The study was conducted among 436 female healthcare workers in China from May 2022 to January 2023, using the work-family balance scale, perceived stress scale and turnover intention scale. A network analysis and path analysis of the data were conducted through R software and the PROCESS macro in SPSS. The feedback, adjustment and defense nodes were the important nodes of the work-family balance, perceived stress and turnover intention network. Adjustment, defense and conversion between the two roles are more strongly associated with perceived stress and turnover intention. Moreover, adjustment, defense and conversion play parallel chain mediation roles between perceived stress and turnover intention. The family and work of female medical staff can be mutually conflicting (adjustment and defense) and reinforcing (feedback). Moreover, once the mutual conflict and intrusion between family and work intensify, female healthcare workers' stress and turnover intention may increase, even if their work can provide resources for their families. This further suggests that hospital management systems could help female healthcare workers adjust their energy allocation between work and family areas by setting precise work hours, reducing work intrusion at home, and lowering stress and turnover intentions.