The moderating effect of altruism on the relationship between occupational stress and turnover intentions: a cross-sectional study of community rehabilitation workers in China

Abstract

Background In China, community rehabilitation workers are facing a growing challenge related to heavy occupational stress, which is having an impact on employment turnover. Previous studies have explored the effect of the public service motivation of workers in “helping” jobs on occupational stress or turnover intention, but there is a lack of clarification of the impact of altruism on turnover intention in the case of complex pathways involving various factors. Methods A stratified sampling method was used, and a total of 82 community rehabilitation workers who assist disabled people from 34 community health centres in Jiangmen city were included in the study from August to October 2022. The turnover intention, occupational stress, burnout, quality of life, altruism, and certain sociodemographic information of community rehabilitation workers were measured using a structured questionnaire. The partial least squares method was employed to construct and test the structural equation model. Results Although altruism had no direct impact on occupational stress or turnover intention, altruism moderated the effect of occupational stress on burnout (βMod = −0.208) and quality of life (βMod = 0.230) and weakened the mediation of burnout and quality of life between occupational stress and turnover intention. Conclusions This study proposes to address the dilemma of “strong function” and “weak specialty” in community rehabilitation services and to conduct positive psychological interventions for community rehabilitation workers through the guidance of altruistic values.