Work-family behavior role conflict affect the health outcomes of emergency department nurses: gender difference study by propensity score matching

Background Emergency department nurses work in environments with high stress and irregular shifts, which poses a high risk of work–family behavior role conflict (WFBRC). Conflicts have a negative impact on health, including psychological symptoms like anxiety and depression, along with physical symptoms like fatigue, and sleep disorders. The scores of different dimensions of WFBRC vary among different genders, and it is unknown whether there are differences in terms of the impact of different dimensions of WFBRC on health problems among nurses of different genders. Aim To investigate the impact of WFBRC on the emergency department nurses’ health outcomes by comparing different gender. Study design Secondary analysis of a cross-sectional study. A stratified cluster group sampling method was employed to survey emergency department nurses from 30 hospitals in China. Data from the Work-Family Behavioral Role Conflict Scale (WFBRC-S), the Self-assessment scale of somatization symptoms (SSS-CN), and a self-administered sleep questionnaire (SSQ) were collected via electronic questionnaire format, and propensity score matching (PSM) was employed to balance sociodemographic factors, and then a linear regression analysis was performed to clarify gender differences. Results A total of 1,540 emergency department nurses were surveyed, and dataset of 329 male and female emergency department nurse pairs were successfully generated. The study showed male emergency department nurses report higher family-to-work conflict (FWC) scores (25.93 ± 11.85) than females (23.36 ± 10.55). Work-to-family conflict (WFC) has a greater impact on the physical and psychological symptoms of female emergency department nurses ( β = 0.607) than male nurses ( β = 0.392), while FWC shows the opposite pattern [female ( β = 0.165) VS male ( β = 0.351)]. Regarding sleep disorders, WFC affects female nurses ( β = 0.460) is close to that of male nurses ( β = 0.467). Conclusion Male emergency department nurses report higher FWC scores than females. WFC has a greater impact on the physical and psychological symptoms of female emergency department nurses than male nurses, while FWC shows the opposite pattern.