Professional isolation and perceived quality of work life in flexible-employment settings: a cross-sectional study

This study examines whether professional-isolation scores are associated with perceived quality of work life (QWL) beyond an archived social-isolation index in workers recruited from flexible-employment settings. Perceived career-development constraints are examined as a secondary concurrent correlate.

Retained questionnaire responses from 237 workers recruited in China were reanalyzed using ordinal measurement assessment, covariate-adjusted composite-score regression, and 5,000 case-resampling bootstrap replications.

Higher professional-isolation scores were associated with lower QWL scores after adjustment for the retained five-item social-isolation index and demographic characteristics (b = -0.307, 95% CI [-0.430, -0.185]). A negative statistical indirect association involving perceived career-development constraints was also observed. Estimates were similar under record-matching and response-pattern sensitivity checks.

The study identifies a work-related score association not fully accounted for by the retained social-isolation index. This finding supports examining professional guidance and development opportunities in occupation-specific research. Poor measurement fit and incomplete occupational and eligibility records restrict interpretation to observed-score associations; composite regression establishes neither construct validity nor causal mediation.