The Turnover Intention among Grassroots Family Planning Staff in the Context of China’s Universal Two-Child Policy: A Case Study of the Xi’an City

Abstract

The introduction of the universal two-child policy in 2016 marked a major social transition in China and raised a requirement for family planning services; however, the turnover in family planning staff poses a challenge to satisfying the requirement. Thus far, after implementation of the policy, there have been few surveys investigating turnover intention and the underlying motivations in grassroots family planning staff, the major component of China’s family planning system. A survey conducted in Xi’an in 2019 shows that nearly one in three grassroots members had an explicit or implicit turnover intention. Basically consistent with our conceptual framework, the structural equation modeling further indicates that the affective organizational commitment had the largest direct effect on turnover intention and also partly mediated effects of other significant factors (ranked by the size of total effect): Age, specific job satisfactions (i.e., satisfactions with job prospects, relationship with colleagues, and working environment), frequency of working overtime, length of service, and opportunity of professional training. As predicted, turnover behavior in colleagues also directly affected turnover intention in such staff. The above findings have important policy implications for the sustainable development of family planning work in China.