Parenthood and gendered mental health: the role of paid work and housework time
Metzger, Sandrine (University of Vienna)
Gracia, Pablo (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Sociologia)
Centre d'Estudis Demogràfics

Date:	2025
Abstract:	Objective: This study examines the role of changes in paid work and housework time on first-time mothers' and fathers' mental health trajectories. Background: The transition into parenthood is a key life course event with important consequences for individuals' activity pat-terns and couples' division of labor. Yet, whether gendered shifts in paid and domestic work time are linked to men's and women's mental health during the transition to parenthood remains unclear. Method: Using large-scale panel data from the Australian HILDA survey for men and women in different-sex couples (2002-2022; N = 5932), we apply a longitudinal mediation framework with fixed effects models to determine the extent to which mental health trajectories are affected by changes in paid work and housework hours across the first transition into parenthood, considering both individual and partner-relative contributions. Results: Individual and partner-relative paid work hours are positively associated with mental health for both men and women, while individual housework hours negatively impact only women. Following parenthood, women experience substantial reductions in paid work and increases in housework hours, but men's time use stays unchanged. Accordingly, despite overall improvements in women's mental health trajectories, findings show that these parenthood-related changes in time allocations suppress some of the positive effects of childbearing for women, whereas men remain unaffected. Conclusion: The transition to parenthood markedly reinforces gendered time use patterns in paid work and housework within couples, with disadvantageous shifts for women that result in small reductions in first-time mothers' mental health trajectories. The potential factors underlying these findings are discussed.
Note:	Altres ajuts: Irish Research Council GOIPG/2022/626
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Gender ; Housework ; Longitudinal research ; Mental health ; Parents ; Work
Published in:	Journal of Marriage and Family, Vol. 87, núm. 5 (2025) , p.1996-2011, ISSN 1741-3737

DOI: 10.1111/jomf.13121

17 p, 568.6 KB

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Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Social and Legal Sciences > Centre for Demographic Studies (CED-CERCA)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles