The Relationship Between Work-Family Balance and Teachers' Support for Students

This study examines the relationship between work-family balance and teachers' support for students among primary education teachers in North Macedonia. We used a quantitative, non-experimental, cross-sectional design. The initial dataset contained 620 completed questionnaires; after applying a time-based data-quality rule, 575 valid responses were retained for analysis. Work-family balance was assessed through three dimensions - involvement balance, time balance, and satisfaction balance - while teachers' support for students was measured with a five-item subscale adapted from a teacher performance self-assessment instrument. The findings show a positive and statistically significant relationship between work-family balance and teachers' support for students. Among the dimensions, time balance had the strongest bivariate association with teacher support, followed by involvement balance and satisfaction balance. Multiple regression indicated that the three work-family balance dimensions explained 33.8% of the variance in teacher support for students. In the regression model, time balance and satisfaction balance were significant predictors, whereas involvement balance was not statistically significant. Additional Spearman correlations showed weak but significant associations between teacher support and internal evaluation scores, external evaluation scores, relationships with school leadership, and relationships with students' parents. The results suggest that teachers' capacity to manage professional and family roles is meaningfully connected to their ability to support students, although the cross-sectional design does not permit causal conclusions.