The extreme gendering of COVID-19: Household tasks and division of labour satisfaction during the pandemic

Responding to structural inequities: Coping strategies among immigrant women during COVID-19

Examining coping strategies and resilience among immigrant communities reflects a commitment to working with immigrant communities to understand their needs while also identifying and building upon their strengths. In the United States, the physical, emotional, and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic intersected with existing structural inequities to produce distinct challenges and stressors related to the pandemic, immigration, caregiving responsibilities, and structural xenophobia. Leveraging an understanding of the multilevel effects of stress, this qualitative study explores individual, interpersonal, and community-level coping strategies immigrant women used to respond to, alleviate, or reduce distress related to these compounding stressors. Using semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted in 2020 and 2021 with 44 first- and second-generation cisgender immigrant women from different national origins and 19 direct service providers serving immigrant communities in New York City, data were coded and analyzed using a constant comparative approach. Four central themes were identified: caregiving as a source of strength, leveraging resources, social connections, and community support. While women described a range of coping strategies they used to manage stressors and challenges, perspectives from direct service providers also connect these coping strategies to the harm-generating institutions, policies, and structures that produce and uphold structural oppression and inequities. Accounts from service providers point to the detrimental long-term effects of prolonged coping, underscoring a duality between resilience and vulnerability. Exploring the coping strategies cisgender immigrant women used to ease distress and promote resilience during a period of heightened structural vulnerability is critical to centering the experiences of immigrant women while simultaneously directing attention towards addressing the fundamental causes of cumulative disadvantage and the systems and structures through which it is transmitted.

Food and family care during the COVID-19 pandemic: A study of women's domestic workload during the first wave in Chile

This study aimed to explore women's perceptions of domestic work related to food and family care during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Chile and its association with sociodemographic and health variables. We conducted a cross-sectional, analytical, non-probabilistic study. A sample of 2047 women answered an online self-report survey that included a Likert scale about the perception of domestic work associated with food. The survey also included an open comment section. The survey was available between May and June 2020, during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and when most of the country had some degree of mobility restriction. 70.2% of participants perceived their domestic work as "regular"; being younger, having a higher educational level, caring for children or the elderly, and having worse self-perception of mental and general health status increased the chances of having a lower perception of the burden of these tasks. In comments, women declared how heavy the domestic work was, the challenges of being together with their families and of paid job requirements, and how family demands from them increased. Most women felt that their domestic work was heavier during this pandemic period: some groups of women could be at risk of being more affected by this extra workload at home. The importance of interventions and public policies with a gender perspective becomes relevant, considering the role of women in the home and the necessity to generate a social change regarding the domestic burden associated with gender.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on new parents enrolled in the 'BABY1000' birth cohort study in Sydney, Australia: A mixed-methods study

OBJECTIVE

The COVID-19 pandemic was, and continues to be, uniquely experienced by women in the perinatal period and their families. Whilst long-term impacts of the pandemic are unknown, exposures in pregnancy and early life have impacts across the life-course and future generations. The objective of this manuscript was to explore how the pregnancy, postpartum and parenting experiences of a subset of participants from the 'BABY1000' cohort in Sydney, Australia, were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and explore associations between these experiences and state anxiety.

METHODS

Mixed methods were used. Participants were requested to complete an online survey including the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory short form (STAI-6), followed by an invitation to participate in focus group discussions (FGDs).

RESULTS

From September to November 2021, 88 parents completed the survey (mean age 33.5 years, 60% born in Australia, 58% primiparous). Twenty-two parents participated in FGDs. Six themes were identified regarding the experience of parents: (1) Maternal support, (2) Family relationships, (3) Stress and mental health, (4) Healthcare, (5) Family lifestyle and routine, and (6) Long-term impacts. The mean STAI-6 score was 40 (SD 12.3), representing high anxiety. High anxiety was significantly associated with concern regarding COVID-19 and feeling overburdened and lonely.

CONCLUSIONS

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated public health orders significantly impacted participants' pregnancy, postpartum and parenting experiences. Whilst these experiences included some unexpected positives, for many, these were outweighed by negative impacts on mental health, social support, health behaviours, and family relationships.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PUBLIC HEALTH

Ongoing longitudinal research is imperative to identify potential long-term effects of the pandemic across the life-course, better support families in the short and long-term, and plan for public health crises in the future.

The association between unpaid labour and mental health in working-age adults in Australia from 2002 to 2020: a longitudinal population-based cohort study

BACKGROUND

Unpaid labour is a daily part of most people's lives, none more so than for women. Yet, in comparison to paid work, the effect of unpaid labour on mental health is an under-researched area. This study aims to address key gaps in the extant literature, examining how unpaid labour is associated with mental health in working-age men and women, and whether gender differences exist.

METHODS

In this longitudinal population-based cohort study, 19 waves of the Household, Income, and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey were used to employ a fixed effects regression analysis to examine the associations between unpaid labour and mental health in working-age (aged 25-64 years) Australian adults. Mental health was assessed using the MHI-5 scale. Both the individual and the combined effects of four different domains of unpaid labour (household work, childcare, care for adults, and outdoor tasks) were interrogated, as were the gender differences.

FINDINGS

Of the 37 352 participants (297 036 observations) in waves 2002-20 of the HILDA Survey, 22 832 people (190 207 observations) were aged 25-64 years, and after excluding participants with missing data, 21 014 participants (150 163 observations) were included in the analysis. Increasing time in household work was negatively associated with mental health in both men (β coefficient=-0·026 [95% CI -0·04 to -0·01]) and women (β coefficient=-0·009 [-0·02 to 0·001]), as was care for adults (disabled or older people) in women (β coefficient=-0·027 [-0·04 to -0·01]). Conversely, increasing time in childcare for women (β coefficient=0·016 [0·01 to 0·02]) and outdoor tasks for men, was positively associated with mental health (β coefficient=0·067 [0·04 to 0·09]). A null finding for the overall cumulative total unpaid labour exposure for both men and women was probably attributable to the opposing direction of effects between the individual domains that constituted the total load.

INTERPRETATION

This study reveals considerable variance and nuance in how different domains of unpaid labour affect mental health, as well as continued inequity in the division of unpaid labour in households, with women doing considerably more unpaid labour than men. This study also exposes important challenges associated with measuring and understanding total (combined) unpaid labour as a determinant of health.

FUNDING

University of Melbourne Research Training Scholarship, Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Award, Australian Research Council Linkage Project.