Balancing the roles between work and family: when are we satisfied?

Abstract

Over the past decades, the traditional bread winner family has disappeared, and women started to enter the labor market. This gave rise to a new phenomenon: work-life-balance. Whereas many studies implicitly suggest that a higher work-life-balance leads to a higher life satisfaction, this research disentangles these two concepts and tries to find in what way they are influenced. The connection is found by means of the Role Strain Theory, which suggest that people have certain roles in life and limited time to devote to these roles (Greenhaus & Beutel, 1985). Conflict appears when fulfilling one role makes it more difficult to fulfill another role. Based on this theory, and with use of the in 2009 collected NELLS data, we tried to find the relation between work (working overtime, flexible working hours and working part-time) and non-work-related factors (marriage and children) and life satisfaction, and the role of work-life-balance in this relation. Results show that people who are able to choose their own working time report to be more satisfied with life, as it gives them a tool that makes it easier to divide time better between roles. Part of this relation is explained by the fact that work-life-balance is made easier when times are not restricted. Policies intended to improve the work-life-balance of employees therefore need to focus on creating flexible working hours, as this has as ultimate result that it improves life satisfaction. Furthermore, being married and having children will make you more satisfied in life, but do not have impact on your work-life-balance. In order to explain this, an elaboration of the Role Strain Theory is suggested that investigates the potential relief of stress by coming home to a family, which therefore explains the higher life satisfaction.