Quiet Quitting in Nursing: The Role of Psychological Well-Being, Person-Group Fit, and Generational Differences

Quiet quitting, where employees restrict their contributions to the minimum required by their roles, has become an urgent challenge in today's workplaces. This study examined whether person-group fit mediates the relationship between psychological well-being and quiet quitting among nurses and whether this indirect relationship varies across generations. A three-wave, time-lagged survey of 997 registered nurses representing a multigenerational workforce was conducted. Mediation and moderated mediation analyses were used to test the proposed relationships and explore potential generational differences. Results showed that psychological well-being was negatively associated with quiet quitting, both directly and indirectly through person-group fit. Although the indirect effects showed some variation across generations, the index of moderated mediation was not statistically significant, indicating that generational differences in the strength of the indirect pathway were not supported. Thus, person-group fit may represent one mechanism linking psychological well-being to quiet quitting, while the extent to which this mechanism varies across generations remains unclear. The observed generational patterns should therefore be interpreted as exploratory and may require further investigation considering factors such as career stage, workplace priorities, and contextual influences. This study highlights the potential value of engagement strategies that support psychological well-being and strengthen person-group fit within multigenerational nursing teams. Given the modest effect sizes, nonsignificant moderation findings, and study design limitations, the findings should be interpreted with caution. Future research should further examine how career stage, workplace values, and contextual factors influence the relationship between psychological well-being, person-group fit, and quiet quitting.