Work–Life Balance Among Working Households in Nigeria

Work–life balance (WLB) is an increasingly critical determinant of worker well-being, productivity, and organisational commitment in Sub-Saharan Africa's most populous economy. Yet despite Nigeria's rapid labour market transformation and growing urbanisation, rigorous large-scale empirical evidence on the predictors of WLB remains scarce. This study examines the determinants of work–life balance among working households in Nigeria using cross-sectional data from 7,740 survey respondents drawn from six geopolitical zones. Employing ordinary least squares (OLS) regression with heteroskedasticity-robust standard errors across three nested model specifications, the study investigates the roles of hours worked per week, job level, sector of employment, and daily commuting time as primary predictors, while controlling for age, gender, marital status, and number of children or dependants. Results reveal that hours worked per week (β = −0.019, p < 0.001), private sector employment (β = −0.126, p < 0.001), commuting time (β = −0.003, p < 0.001), and job level (β = −0.074, p < 0.01) are significant negative predictors of WLB. Among control variables, female gender (β = −0.141, p < 0.001), marital status (β = −0.091, p < 0.01), and number of dependants (β = −0.069, p < 0.001) are associated with poorer balance, while age shows a modest positive effect. These findings align with and extend the theoretical predictions of the Border Theory, Role Conflict Theory, and the Conservation of Resources Theory. The study makes an original methodological and contextual contribution to the emerging WLB literature in Sub-Saharan Africa and informs labour policy, organisational practice, and future research agendas.