Burden Of Childcare Research Articles

Home, Sweet Home? The Impact of Working from Home on the Division of Unpaid Work during the COVID-19 Lockdown

A lockdown implies a shift from the public to the private sphere, and from market to non-market production, thereby increasing the volume of unpaid work. Already before the pandemic, unpaid work was disproportionately borne by women. This paper studies the effect of working from home for pay (WFH), due to a lockdown, on the change in the division of housework and childcare within couple households. While previous studies on the effect of WFH on the reconciliation of work and family life and the division of labour within the household suffered from selection bias, we are able to identify this effect by drawing upon the shock of the first COVID-19 lockdown in Austria. The corresponding legal measures left little choice over WFH. In any case, WFH is exogenous, conditional on a small set of individual and household characteristics we control for. We employ data from a survey on the gendered aspects of the lockdown. The dataset includes detailed information on time use during the lockdown and on the quality and experience of WFH. Uniquely, this survey data also includes information on the division, and not only magnitude, of unpaid work within households. Austria is an interesting case in this respect as it is characterized by very conservative gender norms. The results reveal that the probability of men taking on a larger share of housework increases if men are WFH alone or together with their female partner. By contrast, the involvement of men in childcare increased only in the event that the female partner was not able to WFH. Overall, the burden of childcare, and particularly homeschooling, was disproportionately borne by women.

Emerging from the Lockdown: Insights from Women Waste Workers' Lives in Delhi

Using a mixed-method approach of telephonic surveys and in-depth interviews with key informants and women workers, this study aims to assess the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown has had on women waste workers and map the way their circumstances changed once the lockdown was lifted. It highlights that the lockdown has had a severe impact on work and income with more than 90% of the respondents stating that they experienced loss of employment during this period. The study also highlights that even after the lockdown was lifted, the workers have not been able to return to work immediately. This is because most go downs where they were employed before the pandemic remain closed even post-lockdown. The lack of waste to segregate has also contributed to the lack of employment. Workers stated that they find it difficult to collect waste, and even when they can, the lack of space for segregation has caused further challenges. They are also getting paid much lesser by go down owners than they were prior to the lockdown, and additionally, have had to sell their segregated material at significantly reduced rates. Even in terms of unpaid work, the report finds that the burden of household work and childcare has increased significantly. This poses a problem for women workers in terms of managing paid work. Women waste workers are struggling with accessing essential goods and services, including food, water, fuel, rent and children’s education. This study recommends that as an immediate measure, waste workers should be provided with free ration kits until their employment situation stabilizes. It also suggests that the government fast track their registration as workers and create a tripartite board so that they have access to some social and economic protections through social welfare schemes. Along with this, it recommends that the government fix a standardized rate for the material that women waste workers segregate, and most importantly, give the workers a right over the waste they collect so that they do not remain vulnerable to exploitation.

Women\u2019s Family Care Responsibilities, Employment and Health: A Tale of Two Countries

Persistently low employment of women in some countries can still be ascribed to a traditional perception of women’s role in society. According to observed data and prevailing social and cultural norms, women have been bearing the primary burdens of housework, childcare, and other family responsibilities. The unequal share of care responsibilities between women and men further worsens the disadvantages of women in balancing public and private life, with an impact on their employment and health outcomes. In this paper we investigate the role of family responsibilities in shaping employment and health outcomes by gender, in Italy and France, during and after the economic downturn. We use data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions for the time windows of 2007–2010 and 2011–2014. Our results support that gender differences in the share of responsibilities roles in the public and private sphere influence the employability and health perception of women.

Gender Equality and Public Policy during COVID-19.

The outbreak of COVID-19 has affected men and women worldwide. The gender dimension of COVID-19 has attracted the attention of researchers and policymakers: while women seem to be less severely hit by the virus and are more compliant with the restricting rules imposed to reduce the spread of the contagion, they risk to suffer more the economic consequences of the pandemic, because they are more vulnerable on the labor market and because they are carrying on most of the burden of housework and childcare which increased substantially during the lockdown. Public policies are required to address the emergency and to deal with its gender implications. Anecdotal evidence suggests that women leaders have performed better than men in dealing with the emergency. This paper explores the evidence on the gender dimension of the pandemic under a new perspective proposed by Profeta (2020), focused on the double relationship between gender equality and public policy: on one side, I show which policies can support gender equality in times of COVID-19 and, on the other side, I explore whether women leadership can promote successful measures. While the evidence provided is only suggestive, future studies should assess causal relationships. (JEL codes: J16 and J18)

Child care policy and child care burden: Policy feedback effects and distributive implications of regulatory decisions

The policy feedback literature highlights that the design of public policies can affect recipients’ experience of those policies and programs. In this paper, we examine the largely unexplored distributional implications of market-based early childhood education and care (ECEC) services. We present the results of a quasi-behavioral conjoint survey of 606 parents in the City of Toronto. Grouping parent respondents by income and access to public subsidies, we find evidence that access to public subsidies influences the ECEC preferences of lower income parents. We explore these findings with respect to how non-subsidized lower income parents experience the market for ECEC. We find evidence that non-subsidized lower income parents are more cost-conscious; this is likely to result in their using less well-regulated ECEC that is more variable in quality. In turning to less well-regulated care, the burden of performing oversight and quality assessments falls on these parents. However, our study finds that lower income non-subsidized parents report the least engagement with learning about ECEC, suggesting that they are likely to be the least able to effectively monitor their children’s care arrangements. We explore the implications of these findings regarding the effects of policy on vulnerable children’s access to high quality ECEC services.

The current status of gender equity in medicine in Korea: an online survey about perceived gender discrimination

BackgroundAlthough the number of women doctors has increased in South Korea, and efforts to improve gender awareness have gained importance in recent years, the issue of gender equity in the medical field has not been fully evaluated. The aim of this study was to determine the current status of gender equity in the medical profession in Korea.MethodsAn online survey on perceived gender discrimination was conducted for 2 months, with both men and women doctors participating. The results were analyzed using descriptive statistics.ResultsA total of 1170 doctors responded to the survey (9.2% response rate). The survey found that 47.3% of the women respondents and 18.2% of the men had experienced gender discrimination in the resident selection process (P < 0.05), 17.2% of the women and 8.7% of the men had experienced discrimination during the fellowship application process (P < 0.05), and 36.2% of the women and 8.0% of the men had experienced discrimination during the professorship application process (P < 0.05). Both men and women cited the issue of childbirth and parenting as the number one cause of gender discrimination against women doctors.ConclusionsThis study revealed the presence of perceived gender discrimination in the Korean medical society. To address discrimination, a basic approach is necessary to change the working environment so that it is flexible for women doctors, and to change the current culture where the burden of family care, including pregnancy, childbirth, and childcare, is the primary responsibility of women.

Exploring spatial variations and factors associated with skilled birth attendant delivery in Ethiopia: geographically weighted regression and multilevel analysis

BackgroundSkilled birth attendant (SBA) delivery is vital for the health of mothers and newborns, as most maternal and newborn deaths occur at the time of childbirth or immediately after birth. This problem becomes worsen in Ethiopia in which only 28% of women give birth with the help of SBA. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the spatial variations of SBA delivery and its associated factors in Ethiopia.MethodsA secondary analysis was carried out using the 2016 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey. A total weighted sample of 11,023 women who had a live birth in the 5 years preceding the survey was included in the analysis. Arc-GIS software was used to explore the spatial distribution of SBA and a Bernoulli model was fitted using SaTScan software to identify significant clusters of non-SBA delivery. The Geographic Weighted Regression (GWR) was employed in modeling spatial relationships. Moreover, a multilevel binary logistic regression model was fitted to identify factors associated with SBA delivery.ResultsIn this study, SBA delivery had spatial variations across the country. The SaTScan spatial analysis identified the primary clusters’ spatial window in southeastern Oromia and almost the entire Somalia. The GWR analysis identified different predictors of non- SBA delivery across regions of Ethiopia. In the multilevel analysis, mothers having primary and above educational status, health insurance coverage, and mothers from households with higher wealth status had higher odds of SBA delivery. Being multi and grand multiparous, perception of distance from the health facility as big problem, rural residence, women residing in communities with medium and higher poverty level, and women residing in communities with higher childcare burden had lower odds of SBA delivery.ConclusionSkilled birth attendant delivery had spatial variations across the country. Areas with non-skilled birth attendant delivery and mothers who had no formal education, not health insured, mothers from poor households and communities, Primiparous women, mothers from remote areas, and mothers from communities with higher childcare burden could get special attention in terms of allocation of resources including skilled human power, and improved access to health facilities.

Baby steps: the gender division of childcare during the COVID-19 pandemic

The nature and scale of the shocks to the demand for, and the supply of, home childcare during the COVID-19 pandemic provide a unique opportunity to increase our understanding of the division of home labour and the determinants of specialization within the household. We collected real-time data on daily lives to document the impact of measures to control COVID-19 on UK families with children under the age of 12. We document that these families have been doing the equivalent of a working week in childcare, with mothers bearing most of the burden. The additional hours of childcare done by women are less sensitive to their employment than they are for men, leaving many women juggling work and (a lot more) childcare, with likely adverse effects on their mental health and future careers. However, some households, those in which men have not been working, have taken greater steps towards an equal allocation, offering the prospect of sharing the burden of childcare more equally in the future.

Changes in Family Life and Relationships during the COVID-19 Pandemic and their Associations with Perceived Stress

This study explores how the COVID-19 pandemic has changed family life and relationships as well as how these changes affect perceived stress among married men and women. This study investigated changes in family time use, household work, child care, leisure activities, income and expenditures along with relationships between spouses and children using a sample of 627 married persons surveyed online from May 19 to 25, 2020. The results showed that the amount of time spent on household work, child care, and family leisure have increased and that the perceived burden of household work and child care has also increased. Gender differences were found in time use, household work, and child care. Leisure activities have changed toward more time watching TV or online media and playing online games and less time on outdoor activities, shopping, and meeting friends. About 38% of respondents reported a reduction in household income and 22% reported an increase in household debt. The majority experienced no change in the quality of relationships with spouses and children, approximately 20% of the sample reported a positive change in relationships with spouses and children. The findings of multivariate regression indicated that change in work time, negative change in household economy, negative change in household work and negative change in relationships with spouses were associated with marital stress. However, this study found that negative changes in child care and in relationships with children did not affect stress among married parents with children in elementary or secondary school.

Burden of caring for children living with human immunodeficiency virus in a semi-rural South African community.

BackgroundCaregiver burden influences the well-being of children living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) who may experience disabilities as a result of the virus, comorbidities and treatment. Overall health, psychological well-being, finances, social life and the relationship with the child being cared for influence the burden of care. This study aimed to investigate the burden of care on caregivers of children living with HIV who may be experiencing disabilities.MethodsAn analytical cross-sectional survey using the Zarit Burden questionnaire was conducted with caregivers of children living with HIV who were accessing care from a semi-rural healthcare setting between May and August 2019. A socio-demographic survey supplemented the Zarit Burden instrument. Descriptive statistics were used to determine burden of care and associations between the demographic profile variables of caregivers and the burden of care, with significance set as p < 0.05.ResultsThirty-eight caregivers completed the survey. Although 44.7% reported no burden of care, 36.8% reported mild-to-moderate burden and 18.4% moderate-to-severe burden of caring for children living with HIV. The only significant association was between caregiver health status and burden of care (p = 0.034).ConclusionAlthough the burden of care in caregivers ranged between mild to severe and was directly associated with the caregiver’s health status, the findings of this study highlight a need to assess caregiver burden in all caregivers of children living with HIV so that appropriate referral to professionals for counselling and support can be initiated. Because caregiver burden affects the care offered to children, professionals need to integrate their well-being into healthcare.

Why do they depend on the private sector of childcare in South Korea?: Perspectives of the selected working mothers

Low birth rate constitutes one of the social problems currently faced by South Korea. In order to solve this issue, the government has tried to reduce the burden of child rearing and enhance child support. Despite governmental childcare support policy being tightened, the burden of childcare remains an issue, especially for working mothers; in fact, some rely on private services due to the lack of high quality and reliable public childcare services. There are few studies related to the use of private services by working mothers in South Korea. In this sense, this study focuses on the experience of working mothers with private childcare professionals—so called emo in South Korea. Through an in-depth interview with six participants, this study reveals the real voice of working mothers hiring emoes to care for and support their children, filling the gap between childcare policy and their demands and providing suggestions to alleviate this discrepancy.

Social determinants of peripartum depressive symptoms among Black peripartum women living with HIV

HIV infection during pregnancy, may present risk of developing depression during pregnancy and postpartum. This psychiatric mood disorder, and many others such as anxiety and HIV-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have been reported prevalent among pregnant and non-pregnant women living with HIV (WLWH). Multiple studies have found associations between social determinants of health and depressive symptoms in this population. However, despite deleterious effects on mother and child which may include suicidal ideations and infant death, only very few studies have examined this phenomenon for peripartum women, particularly Black women- a population prone to living in poor social and economic environments. Therefore, guided by the socio-ecologic model, this study examined predictors of peripartum depressive symptoms among Black peripartum WLWH. The study was a secondary data analysis of 143 Black women seen at special prenatal and women's health clinics in Miami, South Florida, USA. More than half of the women who experienced peripartum depressive symptoms (PDS) (n = 81, 57%) were of low socio-economic status. Low income was associated with increased odds of experiencing PDS. Women who endorsed intimate partner violence/abuse (IPV/A) were 6.5 times more likely to experience PDS; and compared to women with 1 or no childcare burden, women with 2 children-care burden were 4.6 times more likely to experience PDS. These findings demonstrate the negative impact of social factors on the psychological health of Black peripartum WLWH. Burdensome interpersonal relationships may have deleterious effects and trigger PDS among these women. Implications for nursing practice, education and research are also discussed.

Rethinking Essential Services in the Wake of the COVID-19 Health Crisis.

During the COVID-19 global pandemic, Cook Children’s Health Care System needed a way to ensure that all employees had a reliable childcare option. This advocacy note details how Child Study Center, an applied behavior analysis facility in North Texas, transitioned into Camp Cook, a free-of-charge childcare facility that operates weekdays from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Closing the doors on our billable services allowed us to open them to the essential health care workers who were fighting on the front lines against COVID-19. Here we describe the redeployment of employees across 3 departments in an effort to ease the burden of childcare within our local community.

The Effect of Migrant Children on Migrant Mothers' Employment

AbstractMore and more migrant parents choose to bring their children with them to their migration destination in China. Here, the data reported by China's Health and Family Planning Commission in 2017 are used to examine the influence of migrant children on migrant mothers’ employment. The results showed that migrant children have a negative effect on mothers’ employment and reduce wages of mothers who are work. In addition, considering migrant children’s age, we find that as it increases the burden of childcare is lighter; the probability of mothers’ participation in the labour market and receiving a high wage is higher. Furthermore, in terms of mothers’ characteristics, older age and better education, having a spouse or parents who migrated, longer migration history and an across‐provincial move have positive effects on migrant mothers’ employment.

Baby Steps: The Gender Division of Childcare During the Covid-19 Pandemic

The COVID19 pandemic has caused shocks to the demand for home childcare (with the closure of schools and nurseries) and the supply of home childcare (with many people not working). We collect real-time data on daily lives to document that UK families with young children have been doing the equivalent of a working week in childcare. Women have been doing the greater share, but overall, the gender childcare gap (the difference between the share of childcare done by women and the share done by men) for the additional, post-COVID19 hours is smaller than that for the allocation of pre-COVID19 childcare.However, the amount of additional childcare provided by men is very sensitive to their employment – the allocation has become more equal in households where men are working from home and where they have been furloughed/ lost their job. There are likely to be long-term implications from these changes – potentially negative for the careers of parents of young children; but also, more positively for some families, for sharing the burden of childcare more equally in the future.

Association of religious coping use with psychological well-being of mother of mentally retarded children

Low psychological well-being in mothers of children with mental retardation can affect maternal mental health and quality of life. Psychological well-being of mothers depend on maternal coping strategies to overcome the burden of childcare. The religious background of Indonesian society makes mothers tend to use religious coping in handling the burden of nurturing their children. Aim of this study to determine the association between religious coping use and psychological well-being of mothers of children with mental retardation. This is an analytic descriptive study with cross-sectional design. Subjects were mothers of children with mild to moderate level of mental retardation, students of SLB Negeri 1 Bantul. The psychological well-being and religious coping of mother is assessed by Indonesian version of the Psychological Well-being Scale and Religious Coping Scale. The significance level of the statistical test is expressed at p &lt; 0.05. Results of this study showed there is a significant association between religious coping and psychological well-being of mothers of children with mental retardation (X2: 17.897; C: 0.377; p: 0.000; RP: 5.65; 95% CI: 2.46-12.92). All dimensions of religious coping have a significant association with the psychological well-being of the mother (p: 0.000). The dimensions of achieving comfort and closeness to God have the highest closeness association with the psychological well-being among other dimensions of religious coping (X2: 39.041; C: 0.515). The confounding variables in this study are mother’s age, mother’s education, family income, marital status, mother’s employment status, family income, children’s gender, children's level of mental retardation and children’s class grade. Mother’s education has also a significant association with the psychological well-being of the mother (p: 0.021). Religious coping and mother’s education contribute 26.7% to the psychological well-being of mothers. This finding reveals that religious coping is important to improve the psychological well-being of mothers of children with mental retardation.

PC01.03 Real World Research Groups - ALK+ Group

PC01.03 Real World Research Groups - ALK+ Group

Employment Status and Contraceptive Choices of Women With Young Children in Turkey

The childcare burden is one of the main reasons behind the lower employment rate of women in Turkey, and the opportunity cost of childbearing is high for employed women (especially for those in higher-paid jobs). Since using an effective birth control method allows women to control the timing of reproduction, there may be differences in contraception behavior between employed women and women not working for pay. This study analyzes the impact of employment status of women with young children on their contraception behavior using data from the 2013 Turkey Demographic and Health Survey (TDHS). Results show that employed women, including family workers, are more likely to choose a modern method over a traditional one, particularly those working as government employees. Results also indicate that the likelihood of employment can be enhanced by increasing the share of public provision of childcare and preschool services.

Reliability and validity of Japanese versions of the UCLA loneliness scale version 3 for use among mothers with infants and toddlers: a cross-sectional study

BackgroundMothers with infants and toddlers are a potential target population for the prevention or alleviation of feelings of loneliness. However, the theory and methods for measuring loneliness among mothers with infants and toddlers have yet to be standardized worldwide, including in Japan. Our goal was to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Japanese version of the UCLA Loneliness Scale Version 3 (UCLA-LS3-J), as well as two short-form versions—the 10-item UCLA-LS3 (SF-10) and the 3-item UCLA-LS3 (SF-3)—for the measurement of loneliness in mothers with infants and toddlers in Japan.MethodsThis cross-sectional study was conducted using a self-report questionnaire. The target population was 430 mothers with infants and toddlers who visited a community health center in Yokohama City in Japan. Questionnaire items encompassed the UCLA-LS3-J, as well as demographic data, the feeling for childrearing scale, and measures of social networks and subjective health status. The reliability and validity of the UCLA-LS3-J and its two short-form versions (SF-3 and SF-10) were determined via IBM SPSS Amos and SPSS Statistics 22.ResultsQuestionnaires were returned by 248 mothers (valid response rate: 57.7%) aged 32.7 ± 4.6 (mean ± SD) years. The mean score on the UCLA-LS3-J was 38.4 ± 9.7 (range 20.0–73.0), with a normal distribution. When confirmatory factor analysis was carried out (for a single factor model), the goodness of fit of the model was almost identical to that of the original UCLA-LS3 version for the UCLA-LS3-J: (GFI = 0.882, AGFI = 0.840, CFI = 0.932, RMSEA = 0.066) and SF-10: (GFI = 0.942, AGFI = 0.900, CFI = 0.956, RMSEA = 0.081). The SF-3 model also showed an acceptable fit. The UCLA-LS3-J total score was significantly correlated with the total score on the SF-10 (r = 0.965) and SF-3 (r = 0.868). The Cronbach’s α coefficient of the UCLA-LS3-J was 0.926, while those of the SF-10 and SF-3 were 0.888 and 0.790, respectively. The score on the UCLA-LS3-J was positively correlated with childcare burden (r = .319, p < 0.001) and negatively correlated with social networks (r = −.438, p < 0.001).ConclusionsThis study indicated that the reliability and validity of the UCLA-LS3-J as well as its two short-form versions were adequate for assessing loneliness in mothers with infants and toddlers in Japan.

P3.36: Burden of care for children after establishment of enteral autonomy following intestinal failure: a 12 month follow up study

Introduction: The importance of a multidisciplinary team for intestinal rehabilitation in children with intestinal failure (IF) is accepted internationally and is a standard of care for patients managed by the New Zealand National Intestinal Failure Service (NZ NIFS). The aim of this study was to understand the ongoing burden of care for children with IF in NZ who achieved enteral autonomy as their primary outcome. Methods: The NZ NIFS patient registry collected data for patients with IF as defined by the requirement for intravenous nutrition (IVN) for ≥ 21 days for paediatric patients up to 18 years of age and ≥ 30 days for preterm neonates (< 34 weeks gestation). Data were collected from October 2015 to October 2018. Primary clinicians of patients with IF reported data in conjunction with NZ NIFS and information was obtained from patient records. Data collected included ethnicity, social deprivation index, cause of IF and clinical outcome. For patients that achieved enteral autonomy as their primary outcome and had at least 12 months follow up, further information was collected regarding feeding outcomes and multidisciplinary professionals involved in their care at 12 months after ceasing IVN. The number and indications for readmissions for this patient group over this 12 month period were also collected. Results: Of 208 children with IF over a 3 year period, 128 (62%) patients achieved enteral autonomy and had 12 months follow up after ceasing IVN. Of this group, most common causes of IF were mechanical obstruction and short bowel syndrome. At 12 months follow up, 117 (92%) children were having an age appropriate oral diet, including 27 (21%) also needing supplementary drinks, and/or enteral feeding in combination with their oral diet. One hundred and seven (84%) children required review by a paediatrician and 56 (44%) still required a surgeon. Community nurse input had continued for 61 (48%) of children and allied health services including dietitians 56 (44%) and speech and language therapists 42 (33%) were also required. Twenty nine (23%) of the children were readmitted to hospital for reasons related to IF during this period. Conclusion: The burden of care for children with IF does not end with enteral autonomy and this group of patients often require ongoing interventions and multidisciplinary input.