EFFORT-REWARD IMBALANCE, WORK-FAMILY CONFLICT AND PSYCHOPHYSICAL HEALTH CONDITIONS OF NURSES: EFFECTS OF GENDER DIFFERENCES

The study proposes the integration between Effort Reward Imbalance Model (Siegrist, 1996) and the Work-Family Conflict construct (Netemeyer, 1996) and aims at evaluating the main and combined effects of perceived effort- reward imbalance and work-family stress on nurses’ psychophysical health conditions, taking into account gender’ differences. Method. The Italian versions of ERI test (Zurlo, Pes, Siegrist, 2010), SCL-90-R (Preti,Prunas, Sarno, Madeddu, 2011) and Work Family Conflict Scale (WFC; Netemeyer, 1996) were submitted to 250 nurses. Data were treated as follows: frequencies and percentages of perceived Effort-Reward Imbalance, Work- Family Conflict and clinical levels of psychophysical diseases; logistic regression analysis to evaluate the effects of Effort-Reward Imbalance and Work-family Conflict on psychophysical health conditions. Data showed high levels of perceived Effort-Reward Imbalance (22%) and Work-Family Conflict (48.8%), and of Somatization (65.2%), Interpersonal Sensitivity (58.8%), Hostility (58%), Physical disease (83.6%). For female nurses, buffering effects of Esteem Reward on Anxiety (OR=.422,CI=.187-. 954), Interpersonal Sensitivity (OR=.376, CI=.155-.910) and Psychoticism (OR=.298, CI=.134-.665) and for male nurses, buffering effects of Job- Security Reward on Anxiety (OR=.227, CI=.075-.683), Interpersonal Sensitivity (OR=.140, CI=.040-.491) and Psychoticism (OR=.339, CI=. 116-.989) were found. In addition significant main effects of perceived Effort Reward Imbalance on Depression (OR= 5.363, CI=1.901-15.131) and Somatization (OR=2.857, CI = 1.061-7.693) for male nurses, and of Work Family Conflict on Depression (OR=2.866, CI=1.363-6.027) and Somatization (OR=2.830, CI=1.221-6.558) for female nurses were reported.The study confirms the influence of gender on nurses’ perceived stress and health conditions and gives a contribution in promoting interventions to support nurses’ psychophysical health