Do Family Responsibilities and a Clinical Versus Research Faculty Position Affect Satisfaction with Career and Work–Life Balance for Medical School Faculty?

Abstract

Background: Balancing career and family obligations poses challenges to medical school faculty and contributes to dissatisfaction and attrition from academics. We examined the relationship between family setting and responsibilities, rank, and career and work-life satisfaction for faculty in a large U.S. medical school. Methods: Baseline faculty surveys were analyzed from the first year of a 4-year National Institutes of Healthfunded study to evaluate awareness, knowledge, attitudes, and use of family friendly policies and career satisfaction. The study focus was on the impact of family responsibilities and characteristics of the faculty position (rank, clinical vs. nonclinical, and academic series) in multivariate comparisons between primary predictors and outcomes of interest. Results: Both clinical and family responsibilities for children under 18 play a major and interacting role in satisfaction with career and work-life balance. Clinical faculty respondents without children at home reported significantly greater career satisfaction and better work-life balance than their nonclinical counterparts. Nonclinical faculty respondents with children reported greater satisfaction and better balance than counterparts without family responsibilities. However, the advantage in career satisfaction and work-life balance for clinical faculty respondents disappeared for those with responsibility for young children. No gender-based differences were noted in the results or across faculty rank for respondents; however, for women, reaching associate professor resulted in greater career satisfaction. Conclusion: This study suggests that both work-related factors and family responsibilities influence satisfaction with career and work-life balance, but the predictors appear to interact in complex and nuanced ways. Further research is needed to delineate more clearly these interactions and to explore other factors that may play important additional roles.

Pediatric psychologists’ career satisfaction: 2015 Society of Pediatric Psychology Workforce Survey results.

“…For example, on average, pediatric psychologists indicated tht they were only somewhat satisfied with balance of work and personal life, indicating that a major contributor to satisfaction may not be optimally met. This is consistent with the experiences reported by other healthcare professionals, suggesting there may be systemic barriers to satisfaction with work-life balance (Strong et al, 2013; Beckett et al, 2015). Pediatric psychologists may want to make efforts to limit their engagement in professional activities outside of the work setting, and colleagues may offer to support one another to limit the need to address work-related responsibilities outside of work time.…”

Job Burnout on Subjective Well-Being Among Chinese Female Doctors: The Moderating Role of Perceived Social Support

“…Previous studies have shown that female doctors tend to show more empathy (Gleichgerrcht and Decety, 2013;Cho and Jeon, 2019) and offer patients more comfort and emotional care. In addition to the increased demands of work, family responsibilities and dissatisfaction with work-life balance also play an important role in the mood of female doctors (Beckett et al, 2015). Women feel more pressure at home (Ma, 2017), leading to higher levels of EE, leading to increased depression and anxiety (Khamisa et al, 2015;Lin et al, 2016).…”

A Summary Report from the Research Partnership on Women in Science Careers

“…31 Beckett et al found that faculty with both child-care and clinical responsibilities were significantly more likely to report low satisfaction with work-life balance and career compared to colleagues without children and/or clinical responsibilities. 32 Villablanca et al found that flexibility policies (institutional level) were perceived as important for recruitment, retention, and career satisfaction. 33 Howell et al reported that policies were viewed as particularly important by women and younger faculty (age < 50).…”