ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Organizational Psychology
This article is part of the Research TopicNurse Fatigue: Investigating Burnout, Health Risks, and Prevention StrategiesView all 21 articles
The Mediating Effect of Regulatory Emotional Self-Efficacy Between Work-Family Conflict and Turnover Intention in Female Nurses With Two Children
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Nursing, The second people's Hospital of Yibin,Sichuan,China., Yibin,Sichuan, China
- 2Department of Emergency Medicine, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
- 3Department of Intensive Care Unit, The Second People′s Hospital of Yibin., Yibin, China
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Objective: This study examines the mediating role of regulatory emotional self-efficacy (RESE) in female nurses on the relationship between work-family conflict (WFC) and turnover intention (TI), focusing specifically on female nurses with two children in Tertiary Grade-A hospitals in Sichuan Province. By exploring how RESE influences the impact of WFC on nurses' intentions to leave, the study aims to offer valuable insights for strategies to reduce nurse turnover and enhance the stability of the nursing workforce. Methods: A convenience sampling method was employed to recruit 1,370 female nurses with two children from 65 tertiary hospitals across 21 cities and prefectures in Sichuan Province. Participants completed a general information questionnaire along with the Work-Family Behavioral Role Conflict Scale (WFBRCS), the Regulatory Emotional Self-Efficacy Scale (RESES), and the Turnover Intention Scale (TIS) to assess WFC, RESE and TI. Results: Female nurses with two children reported a mean TIS score of 13.11 ± 3.93, with an average item score of 2.18 ± 0.66, reflecting a high level of TI. WFC was positively associated with TI (r = 0.485, P < 0.01), whereas RESE was negatively associated with TI (r = -0.382, P < 0.01). Furthermore, RESE was found to partially mediate the relationship between WFC and TI, suggesting that higher emotional self-efficacy can buffer the impact of WFC on nurses' intentions to leave. Conclusion: It is recommended that hospital management implement a dual-track intervention system emphasizing both resource optimization and psychological empowerment. Practically, this could involve adopting flexible scheduling and increasing nursing staff to alleviate the strain of heavy workloads on nurses' family responsibilities. Simultaneously, providing mindfulness training, regular psychological counseling, and emotional management workshops can strengthen nurses' RESE, enabling them to better balance work and family demands, reduce TI, and promote the stability and sustainable development of the nursing workforce.
Keywords: Female nurses, two children, work-family conflict, regulatory emotionalself-efficacy, turnover intention
Received: 07 Apr 2025; Accepted: 28 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chengrong, Li, Zhao, Zhao, Qiu and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Ling Chengrong, 982077065@qq.com
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