Understanding Gendered Pathways: Work-Life Balance, Job Perceptions, and Intent to Leave Among Child Welfare Professionals

Background and Purpose:

High turnover rates among child welfare professionals have been a consistent issue. While extensive research has identified workplace factors contributing to turnover, the role of work-life balance and its interaction with job perception (including job satisfaction, secondary traumatic stress, and burnout) remains understudied. This study examined how work-life balance moderates the relationship between job perception and intent to leave, and explored whether these dynamics differ by gender and race. Findings aim to inform organizational strategies to improve employee well-being and retention by highlighting work–life balance as a key, actionable pathway for intervention.

Methods:

This is a secondary data analysis using data from the Florida Study of Professionals for Safe Families. Using Spillover Theory as the conceptualizing framework, this study analyzed data from 830 child welfare professionals. The analytic sample of this study includes professionals who have completed relevant measures including the Secondary Traumatic Stress Scale, Copenhagen Burnout Inventory, Job Satisfaction Survey, Work-Life balance Scale, and Intent to Leave Child Welfare Scale.

Multiple regression models were used to examine how work-life balance moderates the relationships between job perceptions and intent to leave. Three-way moderation analyses were used to explore whether gender and race influenced these moderations. Simple slope analysis was also conducted to examine whether moderation effect exists across all levels of work-life balance.

Results:

Work-life balance significantly moderated the relationships between the three aspects of job perception (i.e. job satisfaction, secondary traumatic stress, and burnout) and intent to leave. Specifically, when work-life balance was high, negative job perceptions had less impact on intent to leave. Notably, consistent gender differences were found. Among females, higher work-life balance had salient effect on reducing the impact of adverse job perceptions on intent to leave. However, the reverse patterns were observed among males—when work-life balance is higher, job perceptions have greater impact on intent to leave. Race did not moderate these relationships.

Conclusion and Implication:

These findings suggest that females may prioritize work–life balance over job perceptions. These gender differences may reflect broader processes of gender socialization, in which women are often expected to balance both professional and caregiving roles, shaping how work–life balance influences their retention decisions. In contrast, job perceptions had a more direct and salient impact on intent to leave among men, suggesting that workplace experiences may be more central to their decision-making, and that they may be more likely to prioritize career development over private roles.

These findings highlight an important direction for future research: adopting a more holistic perspective that examines how structural factors and socialized identities jointly shape workforce well-being and intent to leave. Additionally, the results of this study underscore the importance of organizational policies that support work–life balance, such as flexible schedules and remote work options, while recognizing that strategies must be tailored to workers’ diverse needs and identities rather than adopting a one-size-fits-all approach.