Journal of Social Work Education and Practice (Jan 2023)
Work-Life Balance, Work Addiction and Job Satisfaction of Professional Social Workers in Kerala
Abstract
Social work is a profession that aims to improve people's quality of life. The discipline focuses on assisting those experiencing difficulties and troubles in finding solutions and helping themselves. The professionals' overall well-being is crucial because they care for the well-being of others. Social workers frequently deal with client's physical, emotional, intellectual, mental, and social distress; therefore, they can be vulnerable to work-life imbalances. This paper assesses the work-life balance (WLB), work addiction (WA), and job satisfaction (JS) of professional social workers in Kerala and to what extent job satisfaction and work addiction contribute to their work-life balance. This is a quantitative, cross-sectional study, and data were collected from professional social workers (n=105) currently practicing in Kerala with a minimum of two years of experience. The tool used had three scales; WLB was measured using Work-life Balance (Hyman, 2005) scale, WA with The Dutch Work Addiction Scale (DUWAS), and JS with Wright and Copranzao 1998 scale. Correlation analysis was performed to find the relationship between the variables, and regression analysis was done to measure the extent of the impact of independent variables on the dependent variable. The results indicate that most of the samples have medium to high levels of WLB, and their levels of WA and JS significantly contribute to it. This study's result contrasts the existing literature, which shows low WLB among social workers in other locations. Therefore, the paper also discusses possible reasons for this contradiction and recommends some interventions for reducing WA among the population.
