Abstract
Balancing work duties and family responsibilities is an ongoing struggle for many American adults. As work is a crucial aspect of maintaining a family unit, an individual's level of work-life balance may affect how they feel about their family life. This raises the question, is there an association between Americans' work-life balance and their satisfaction with family life? To address this question, a sample of 809 American adult respondents was drawn from the International Social Survey Program's (ISSP) Family and Changing Gender Roles Module. The variable of worklife balance was measured by asking respondents how often in the past three months they experienced difficulty fulfilling family responsibilities because of the amount of time spent on their job. The variable of satisfaction with family life was measured by asking respondents how satisfied they were with family life. The data was analyzed using IBM's SPSS software, where I performed a one-way ANOVA test and cross-tabulation to test for association between work-life balance and satisfaction with family life. My findings indicate a significant difference in satisfaction with family life given variation in the frequency of difficulty fulfilling family responsibilities due to work. In particular, participants who "never" experienced difficulty with balancing work and family responsibilities had a higher level of satisfaction with family life than those who experienced difficulty "several times a month" and "several times a week" (P = .001 ).
Recommended Citation
Rangaswami, Anjali
(2021)
"Work-Life Balance and Satisfaction with Family Life: A Methodological Analysis,"
Silicon Valley Sociological Review: Vol. 19, Article 8.
Available at:
https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/svsr/vol19/iss1/8