The Association Between Intimate Partner Violence and Work Thriving/Work Alienation Among Chinese Female Nurses: The Mediating Impact of Resilience

Objective: The primary objective of this cross-sectional study was to examine the prevalence of different types of intimate partner violence (IPV) among female nurses employed in public hospitals across China. Additionally, the study sought to investigate the relationship between nurses' psychological resilience and their experiences of work thriving and work alienation in the aftermath of IPV.

Methods: This cross-sectional study utilized an online self-report survey to collect data from a sample of 522 female nurses working in public healthcare facilities across several major cities in China. The survey instrument collected information on participants' sociodemographic characteristics, experiences of intimate partner violence (IPV), psychological resilience, work thriving, and work alienation. The Kruskal-Wallis one-way ANOVA test was used to compare outcome variables across IPV exposure groups, and multiple linear regression modeling was subsequently performed to examine the associations between the dependent variables (work thriving and work alienation) and the independent variables, including IPV exposure and resilience.

Results: The overall prevalence of IPV reported by the female nurse participants was 74.26%. Specifically, the rates of emotional IPV, physical IPV, and sexual IPV were 74.06%, 24.27%, and 7.53%, respectively. The results indicated that total IPV exposure, the three IPV subtypes, psychological resilience, work thriving, and work alienation were all significantly and positively interrelated. IPV scores demonstrated a negative association with psychological resilience and work thriving, but a positive association with work alienation. Importantly, psychological resilience was found to be positively correlated with work thriving and negatively correlated with work alienation.

Conclusion: The findings suggest that psychological resilience plays a pivotal role, both directly and indirectly, in influencing the work-related outcomes of female nurses who have experienced IPV. Specifically, resilience was positively associated with thriving at work and directly negatively associated with work alienation, though a partial mediating effect of resilience was also observed.