Mental health in dual-income families during COVID-19

Background: In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, this study investigated mental health within dual-earner, heterosexual couples working from home and explored whether gender differences in mental health relate to unequal division of labor and/or level of childcare commitment (i.e., having no children, having at least one child below or equal to 6 years old, and having children all above 7 years old). Methods: Participants (N = 277; 55% male, 85% White) were heterosexual adults living with a romantic partner (both employed either full- or part-time), working from home during the pandemic. They were recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk and completed self-report measures of anxiety and depressive symptoms, and parental stress. Results: On average, during the pandemic females contributed more hours to household chores and childcare per female and male reports. However, females perceived their effort expended to be greater than that expended by males, whereas males perceived equal effort. Both genders perceived the division of labor as being fair overall. Females without children reported greater anxiety than did males without children. Females’ anxiety was relatively constant across parental statuses. Males with children below or equal to age 6 experienced greater anxiety than did males without children. Also, males who reported a higher share of perceived effort in doing household chores endorsed greater anxiety, depression, and parental stress compared to females in the same situation.