Children and COVID-19 Research Library

UNICEF Innocenti's curated library of COVID-19 + Children research

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Journal article

US parents' domestic labor during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic

AUTHOR(S)
Daniel L. Carlson; Richard J. Petts

Published: August 2022 Journal: Population Research and Policy Review

It is important to assess the long-term consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for gender equality, but we know little about US parents’ domestic arrangements beyond the early days of the pandemic or how simultaneous changes in employment, earnings, telework, gender ideologies, and care supports may have altered domestic arrangements. This study assesses changes in parents’ domestic labor during the first year of the pandemic using fixed-effects regression on data from a longitudinal panel of 700 different-sex partnered US parents collected at three time points: March, April, and November 2020. Parents’ divisions of housework and childcare became more equal early in the pandemic, but divisions of housework reverted toward pre-pandemic levels by Fall 2020 whereas fathers’ shares of childcare remained elevated. Changes in parents’ divisions of domestic labor were largely driven by changes in parents’ labor force conditions, but shifts in gender ideology also mattered.

Research Report

The Covid-19 pandemic and gendered division of paid work, domestic chores and leisure: evidence from India’s first wave

AUTHOR(S)
Ashwini Deshpande

Published: July 2022 Journal: Economia Politica

Examining high frequency national-level panel data from Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) on paid work (employment) and unpaid work (time spent on domestic work), this paper examines the effects of the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic on the gender gaps in paid and unpaid work until December 2020, using difference-in-differences (D-I-D) for estimating the before (the pandemic) and after (the pandemic set in) effects, and event study estimates around the strict national lockdown in April 2020. The DID estimates reveal a lowering of the gender gap in employment probabilities which occurs due to the lower probability of male employment, rather than an increase in female employment.

Journal article

COVID-19 and a “crisis of care”: a feminist analysis of public policy responses to paid and unpaid care and domestic work

AUTHOR(S)
Elena Camilletti; Zahrah Nesbitt-Ahmed

Published: February 2022 Journal: International Labour Review

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted gender inequalities, increasing the amount of unpaid care weighing on women and girls, and the vulnerabilities faced by paid care workers, often women working informally. Using a global database on social protection responses to COVID-19 that focuses on social assistance, social insurance and labour market programmes, this article considers whether and how these responses have integrated care considerations.

Journal article

Stay home and be unfair: the amplification of inequalities among families with young children during COVID-19

AUTHOR(S)
Marco Pitzalis; Emanuela Spanò

Published: October 2021 Journal: European Journal of Education

This article focuses on the educational practices and strategies mobilised by Italian families with children aged six years and younger, during the health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, in 2020. Specifically, we analyse practices and strategies mobilised by families from different social milieus living in rural or urban contexts. We argue that the shift in childcare practices and needs during the pandemic promoted the reaffirmation of traditional gender stereotypes and patterns of gendered labour division through the blurring of temporal and spatial boundaries between paid work, domestic labour and childcare.

Journal article

He’s working from home and I’m at home trying to work: experiences of childcare and the work–family balance among mothers during COVID-19

AUTHOR(S)
Sara Martucci

Published: October 2021

This article captures mothers’ experiences of the work–family balance and division of household labor during the initial COVID-19 lockdown. Interviews were conducted with twenty-five academics and twenty professionals in other fields. Mothers who split childcare with their partners had a more positive experience of the work–family balance during lockdown, compared with mothers who did the majority of the childcare. The present study adds a new wrinkle into the literature on flexibility and work–family balance: the perception of flexibility and its impact on the division of labor. Academic mothers, who had always had highly “flexible” jobs, were less likely to split childcare with their partners pre-pandemic and thus less likely to have positive experiences of work–family balance during the Spring 2020 lockdown. I argue that perceived flexibility of a partner’s job affected allocation of childcare during the initial stages of the pandemic, a moment that wreaked significant harm on women’s careers.

Cite this research | Open access | Language: English | Topics: Education, Social Protection, Well-being and Equity | Tags: child care, COVID-19 response, domestic work, gender equality, gender roles, lockdown, remote learning, school attendance, social distance, social inequality

Journal article

Changes in US parents’ domestic labor during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic

AUTHOR(S)
Daniel L. Carlson; Richard J. Petts; Joanna R. Pepin

Published: September 2021 Journal: Sociological Inquiry

Stay-at-home orders and the removal of care and domestic supports during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic substantially disrupted US parents’ work and family lives. Although much is known about changes in US parents’ paid labor arrangements, the evidence regarding changes in unpaid domestic labor has been largely anecdotal. This study uses novel data from 1,025 US parents in different-sex partnerships to provide a descriptive overview of changes in mothers’ and fathers’ participation in, and division of, housework and childcare from March 2020 to the early days of the pandemic (late April 2020).

Cite this research | Open access | No. of pages: 28 | Language: English | Topics: Education, Social Protection, Well-being and Equity | Tags: child education, COVID-19 response, domestic work, e-learning, gender equality, gender roles, lockdown, remote learning, school attendance, social distance, social inequality | Countries: United States

Journal article

Contrasts and ambivalences in French parents’ experiences regarding changes in eating and cooking behaviours during the COVID-19 lockdown

AUTHOR(S)
Kaat Philippe; Sylvie Issanchou; Sandrine Monnery-Patris

Published: September 2021 Journal: Food Quality and Preference

Using open-ended questions, this study explored parents’ experiences regarding changes in their family’s food-related behaviours during the first COVID-19 lockdown in France (March-May 2020). Parents (N=498, 72% mothers) of children aged 3-12 years described which food-related changes they (1) perceived as positive during the lockdown, (2) perceived as negative, and (3) would like to maintain after the lockdown. A thematic analysis revealed that parents appreciated the choice of more local, fresh foods, the time to prepare food (home-made dishes, new recipes) and cooking and eating together with the family. In contrast, some parents highlighted a burden imposed by the increased food preparation at home. They also described a higher intake of unhealthy, palatable food (or the temptation to do so), and weight concerns. Parents would like to maintain their choice of local, fresh foods, and to continue spending more time together around food but doubt the feasibility after the lockdown. The results revealed many inter- and intra-individual contrasts in parents’ answers. An ambivalent attitude toward food pleasure was demonstrated: the sensory/commensal pleasure of eating versus the concerns about an increased intake of pleasurable food. Additionally, gender differences were observed: mothers perceived the preparation of additional meals, for example, more often as a burden than fathers. This study revealed intimate perceptions of the impact of the lockdown on eating habits in families. They give insight into possible facilitators and barriers (e.g., time) for the adoption of recommended eating and cooking behaviours in families, beyond the pandemic.

Cite this research | Language: English | Topics: Social Protection, Well-being and Equity, Mental Health | Tags: behavioural change, child feeding, COVID-19 response, domestic work, family environment, family health, gender equality, gender roles, household food security, lockdown, mental stress, psychological distress, social distance | Countries: France

Journal article

Women’s perceptions about changes in food-related behaviors at home during COVID-19 pandemic in Chile

AUTHOR(S)
María-Fernanda Jara; Barbara Leyton; Carla Cuevas (et al.)

Published: June 2021 Journal: Public Health Nutrition

This paper aims to explore women’s perceptions of changes in specific food habits at home, specifically the food budget and shopping, and food preparation, during the COVID-19 period. Non-probabilistic, exploratory study. Participants completed an online self-administered questionnaire. Perceptions of food habit changes were measured on a five-point Likert scale (strongly disagree to strongly agree). Data analysis was conducted in STATA v16.0.

Cite this research | Open access | No. of pages: 26 | Language: English | Topics: Social Protection, Well-being and Equity, Nutrition | Tags: behavioural change, child nutrition, COVID-19 response, domestic work, food, household food security, lockdown, social distance, social inequality | Countries: Chile

Research Report

Fathers matter: intrahousehold responsibilities and children's wellbeing during the COVID-19 lockdown in Italy

AUTHOR(S)
Lucia Mangiavacchi; Luca Piccoli; Luca Pieroni

Published: May 2021 Journal: Economics & Human Biology

The lockdown imposed during the spring of 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic upset families lives, in addition to the health consequences of the virus, forcing parents to completely reorganize their labor, domestic work and childcare time. At the same time, school closures forced children to rearrange their lives and learning processes: in Italy, schools and nurseries were closed for four months, and the incidence and quality of distance learning activities was heterogeneous across education levels and among schools. Using real-time survey data on families with under-16 children collected in April 2020, which include information on parents’ market and household work, and their perception of their children's wellbeing, we estimate how the lockdown has affected children's use of time, their emotional status and their home learning, and whether the reallocation of intrahousehold responsibilities during the lockdown played a role in this process. Changes in the parental division of household tasks and childcare, mostly induced by the labor market restrictions imposed during the lockdown, point to a greater involvement of fathers in childcare and homeschooling activities. This positive variation in fathers’ involvement is accompanied by an increase in children's emotional wellbeing and by a reduction in TV and passive screen time. On the other hand, the quality of children's home learning does not appear to depend on which parent is overseeing their work, but rather on the type of distance learning activities proposed by their teachers.

Journal article

Unpaid work and care during COVID-19: subjective experiences of same-sex couples and single mothers in Australia

AUTHOR(S)
Lyn Craig; Brendan Churchill

Published: March 2021 Journal: Gender & Society

This paper draws on data from Work and Care During COVID-19, an online survey of Australians during pandemic lockdown in May 2020 (n = 2,722). It focuses on how sub-samples of lesbian, gay, and bisexual mothers and fathers in couples (n = 280) and single mothers (n = 480) subjectively experienced unpaid work and care during lockdown compared with heterosexual mothers and fathers in couples, and with partnered mothers, respectively. During the pandemic, non-heterosexual fathers’ subjective reports were less negative than those of their heterosexual counterparts, but differences between heterosexual and lesbian/bisexual mothers were more mixed. Unlike their partnered counterparts, more single mothers reported feeling satisfied than before with their balance of paid and unpaid work and how they spent their time overall during the pandemic, perhaps because they avoided partnership conflicts and particularly benefited from relaxed commuting and child care deadlines.

Journal article

Gender, parenting, and the rise of remote work during the pandemic: implications for domestic inequality in the United States

AUTHOR(S)
Allison Dunatchik; Kathleen Gerson; Jennifer Glass (et al.)

Published: March 2021 Journal: Gender & Society

This study examines how the shift to remote work altered responsibilities for domestic labor among partnered couples and single parents. The study draws on data from a nationally representative survey of 2,200 US adults, including 478 partnered parents and 151 single parents, in April 2020. The closing of schools and child care centers significantly increased demands on working parents in the United States, and in many circumstances reinforced an unequal domestic division of labor.

Journal article

Shifting inequalities? parents’ sleep, anxiety, and calm during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia and the United States

Published: February 2021 Journal: Men and Masculinities

As a cultural ideal, hegemonic masculinity positions men as breadwinners in the gender order—a position that systematically benefits men and disadvantages women. Because economic success is key to performing masculinity, the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic fallout offer an opportunity to evaluate shifting gender dynamics amidst rapid changes in employment and domestic demands for heterosexual couples with children. Closures of schools, daycare facilities, and workplaces around the world shifted more paid and unpaid work into the home, leading journalists and academics to question whether the pandemic would be a catalyst to “un-stall” the gender revolution. Specifically, they wondered if men would take on more domestic work, generating a more equal gender division of household labor. This essay argues that traditional gender roles were reinforced for U.S. parents but were eroded for Australian parents—with disparate consequences for their well-being during the first few months of the pandemic.

Policy brief

Whose time to care: unpaid care and domestic work during COVID-19

Institution: UN Women
Published: November 2020

Globally, as more people are at home than ever, due to pandemic-related measures and lockdowns, the need for household chores and child care has multiplied. But who is shouldering these increased burdens, and by how much have they increased? To answer this question, UN Women has been gathering new and eye-opening data.

Journal article

Women's and men's work, housework and childcare, before and during COVID-19

AUTHOR(S)
Daniela Del Boca; Noemi Oggero; Paola Profeta (et al.)

Published: September 2020 Journal: Review of Economics of the Household

Using new survey data collected in April 2020 from a representative sample of Italian women, we analyse the effects of working arrangements due to COVID-19 on housework, childcare and home schooling among couples where both partners work. Our results show that most of the additional housework and childcare associated to COVID-19 falls on women while childcare activities are more equally shared within the couple than housework activities.

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Children and COVID-19 Research Library

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