Support for the work-life balance in Europe: the impact of state, workplace and family support on work-life balance satisfaction

TLDR

The study examines how state, workplace, and family support—both instrumental and emotional—affect service‑sector workers’ satisfaction with work‑life balance across eight European countries. The authors map available state, workplace, and family support to identify dominant sources by country and assess their impact, using survey data to test alignment with Esping‑Andersen’s welfare regime typology. Results show that support for work‑life balance satisfaction has both direct and moderating effects, with workplace emotional and instrumental support complementing each other, while emotional family support positively influences satisfaction but instrumental family support does not.

Abstract

This article studies the relevance of different types of support for satisfaction with work life balance. More specifically, it investigates the relevance of state, instrumental and emotional workplace and family support, based on a survey of 7867 service-sector workers in eight European countries. The article starts by mapping available state, workplace and family support in order to determine which source dominates in which country and whether these sources match Esping-Andersen’s welfare regime typology. The impact of the different support sources is then examined. Findings indicate that support for employee work-life balance satisfaction has a direct and moderating effect. Finally, results show that emotional support and instrumental support in the workplace have a complementary relationship. Whereas emotional family support has a positive impact on work-life balance satisfaction, instrumental family support does not.