Adaptation and Validation of Work-Life Balance Scale among Health Professionals Working in Public and Private Hospitals in Eastern Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Health professionals are always striving hard to save lives, as they are front-liners in dealing with patient care services. The work-life balance scale needs to be adapted and validated across various professionals and socio-cultural contexts. However, evidence on the psychometric properties of the work-life balance scale among health professionals in the Eastern Ethiopian context remains limited. Therefore, this study aimed to validate the psychomet­ric properties of the work-life balance scale among health professionals working in hospitals in the eastern Ethiopian context, explore the factor structure of the WLB scale, and examine the reliability and validity of the Amharic version of the WLBIQ4.

Methods: A total of 476 health professionals were selected from ten public and private hospitals using simple random and proportional stratified sampling techniques. The number of factors was determined using maximum likelihood with the promax rotation method and exploratory factor analysis. Moreover, confirmatory factor analysis, descriptive statistics, validity, and reliability analysis were employed as methods of data analysis.

Results: The results of the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) indicated that the 19 items of the Work–Life Balance (WLB) scale loaded onto four dimensions: Work Interference with Personal Life (WIPL), Personal Life Enhancement of Work (PLEW), Work Enhancement of Personal Life (WEPL), and Personal Life Interference with Work (PLIW). Besides, the results of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) indicated that the four-factor model, x² (142, n=238) = 219.967, CMIN/DF = 1.549, GFI = 0.912, TLI = 0.975, CFI = 0.980, RMSEA = 0.048, and SRMR = 0.0235, fit the data better.

Conclusion: The work–life balance scale demonstrated good psychometric properties and is suitable for assessing work–life balance among health professionals in the study setting. However, further validation with larger and more diverse samples from different parts of Ethiopia is recommended to confirm its cultural appropriateness and general­izability.