Work-life balance and self-reported health among working adults in Europe: a gender and welfare state regime comparative analysis

Background: The pressing demands of work over the years have had a significant constraint on the family and social life of working adults. Moreover, failure to achieve a 'balance' between these domains of life may have an adverse effect on their health. This study investigated the relationship between work-life conflict and self-reported health among working adults in contemporary welfare countries in Europe.

Methods: Data from the 6th European Working Conditions Survey 2015 on 32,275 working adults from 30 countries in Europe were analysed. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to examine the associations between work-life balance and self-reported health among men and women. We further used a 2 stage multi-level logistic regression to assess variations in self-reported health among welfare state regimes by gender.

Results: The results showed a strong association between work-life conflict and poor self-reported health among working adults in Europe (aOR = 2.07; 95% CI: 1.93-2.23). However, the magnitude of the effect differed slightly by gender (men: aOR = 1.97; 95% CI: 1.78-2.18 vs women: aOR = 2.23; 95% CI: 2.01-2.47). Furthermore, we found variations in the relationship between work-life conflict and poor self-reported health between welfare states regimes. The association was found to be weaker in the Nordic and Southern welfare states than the Liberal, Conservative, and Central Eastern European welfare states. Although the associations were more consistent among men than women in the Conservative welfare states regime, we found higher associations for women than men in the Southern, Nordic, Liberal, and Central Eastern European welfare states.

Conclusions: This study provides evidence of some variations in the association between work-life conflict and poor self-reported health among men and women across welfare states regimes in Europe. The results demonstrate the need for governments, organizations and policymakers to provide conducive working conditions and social policies for working adults to deal with competing demands from work and family activities.