The Effect of Work-Life Balance on Subjective Well-Being and Social Support in Midlife

abstract: Understanding work-life balance is crucial for improving the work environment, managing work and personal demands, and maintaining well-being. However, scientific literature regarding work-life balance has not adequately investigated its long-term relationships with subjective well-being and social support factors. Up to this point, empirical research uses cross-sectional or short-term longitudinal data and is focused on broad outcomes related to work-life balance. The current study adds to the literature by breaking down work-life balance into work interference, how work experiences negatively contribute to personal life, and work enhancement, how work experiences positively contribute to personal life. Work-life balance factors will be explored with relationships between three components of subjective well-being: positive affect, negative affect, and life satisfaction. Additional examined relationships are between work-life balance factors and quality of social support through positive and negative relationships with spouse, family, and friends. Finally, the relationships with work-life balance are examined with potential covariates. The research questions will be tested with multilevel models using data collected from 2006 \u2014 2014 from the Health and Retirement Study, a longitudinal panel survey of participants in midlife and old age. In short, work enhancement is predictive of the level and change in life satisfaction and positive factors; work interference is predictive of the level and change in negative factors. The discussion focuses on understanding the directionality of the relationships and how future research can build upon the understanding of subjective well-being and social support