IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ehbiol/v50y2023ics1570677x23000266.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Studying informal care during the pandemic: mental health, gender and job status

Author

Listed:
  • Madia, Joan E.
  • Moscone, Francesco
  • Nicodemo, Catia

Abstract

Unexpected negative health shocks such as COVID-19 put pressure on households to provide more care to relatives and friends. This study uses data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study to investigate the impact of informal caregiving on mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a difference-in-differences analysis, we find that individuals who started providing care after the pandemic began reported more mental health issues than those who never provided care. Additionally, the gender gap in mental health widened during the pandemic, with women more likely to report mental health issues. We also find that those who began providing care during the pandemic reduced their work hours compared to those who never provided care. Our results suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on the mental health of informal caregivers, particularly for women.

Suggested Citation

  • Madia, Joan E. & Moscone, Francesco & Nicodemo, Catia, 2023. "Studying informal care during the pandemic: mental health, gender and job status," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:50:y:2023:i:c:s1570677x23000266
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ehb.2023.101245
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1570677X23000266
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ehb.2023.101245?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mangiavacchi, Lucia & Piccoli, Luca & Pieroni, Luca, 2021. "Fathers matter: Intrahousehold responsibilities and children's wellbeing during the COVID-19 lockdown in Italy," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 42(C).
    2. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2009. "Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 8769.
    3. Christopher J. Ruhm, 2000. "Are Recessions Good for Your Health?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(2), pages 617-650.
    4. Berecki-Gisolf, Janneke & Lucke, Jayne & Hockey, Richard & Dobson, Annette, 2008. "Transitions into informal caregiving and out of paid employment of women in their 50s," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 122-127, July.
    5. James Banks & Xiaowei Xu, 2020. "The Mental Health Effects of the First Two Months of Lockdown during the COVID‐19 Pandemic in the UK," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 41(3), pages 685-708, September.
    6. Bolin, K. & Lindgren, B. & Lundborg, P., 2008. "Your next of kin or your own career?: Caring and working among the 50+ of Europe," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 718-738, May.
    7. Apostolos Davillas & Andrew M Jones, 2021. "The first wave of the COVID‐19 pandemic and its impact on socioeconomic inequality in psychological distress in the UK," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(7), pages 1668-1683, July.
    8. Narimasa Kumagai, 2017. "Distinct impacts of high intensity caregiving on caregivers’ mental health and continuation of caregiving," Health Economics Review, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 1-14, December.
    9. Eugenio Proto & Climent Quintana-Domeque, 2021. "COVID-19 and mental health deterioration by ethnicity and gender in the UK," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(1), pages 1-16, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Michaela Benzeval & Edith Aguirre & Meena Kumari, 2023. "Understanding Society: health, biomarker and genetic data," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 44(4), pages 399-415, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Heger, Dörte & Korfhage, Thorben, 2017. "Does the negative effect of caregiving on work persist over time?," Ruhr Economic Papers 703, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    2. Lindley, Joanne & Rienzo, Cinzia, 2021. "The Effect of Repeated Lockdowns during the Covid-19 Pandemic on UK Mental Health Outcomes," GLO Discussion Paper Series 977, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    3. Gaggero, Alessio & Fernández-Pérez, Ángel & Jiménez-Rubio, Dolores, 2022. "Effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on depression in older adults: A panel data analysis," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(9), pages 865-871.
    4. Etheridge, Ben & Spantig, Lisa, 2022. "The gender gap in mental well-being at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic: Evidence from the UK," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    5. Akay, Alpaslan, 2022. "The local and global mental health effects of the Covid-19 pandemic," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 45(C).
    6. Leive, Adam, 2018. "Dying to win? Olympic Gold medals and longevity," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 193-204.
    7. Wang, Huixia & Wang, Chenggang & Halliday, Timothy J., 2018. "Health and health inequality during the great recession: Evidence from the PSID," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 17-30.
    8. Sonia OREFICCE & Climent Quintana-Domeque, 2021. "Gender inequality in COVID-19 times: evidence from UK prolific participants," JODE - Journal of Demographic Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 87(2), pages 261-287, June.
    9. Chenggang Wang & Huixia Wang & Timothy J. Halliday, 2017. "Health and Health Inequality during the Great Recession: Evidence from the PSID," Working Papers 201703, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics.
    10. Chaudhuri, K & Howley, P., 2021. "The impact of Covid-19 vaccination for mental health," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 21/14, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    11. Xiaoying Gao & Apostolos Davillas & Andrew M. Jones, 2022. "The Covid‐19 pandemic and its impact on socioeconomic inequality in psychological distress in the United Kingdom: An update," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(5), pages 912-920, May.
    12. Jaana T Kari & Jaakko Pehkonen & Mirja Hirvensalo & Xiaolin Yang & Nina Hutri-Kähönen & Olli T Raitakari & Tuija H Tammelin, 2015. "Income and Physical Activity among Adults: Evidence from Self-Reported and Pedometer-Based Physical Activity Measurements," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(8), pages 1-15, August.
    13. Mark L. Bryan, 2012. "Access to Flexible Working and Informal Care," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 59(4), pages 361-389, September.
    14. Nguyen, Ha Trong & Connelly, Luke Brian, 2014. "The effect of unpaid caregiving intensity on labour force participation: Results from a multinomial endogenous treatment model," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 115-122.
    15. Garth Heutel & Christopher J. Ruhm, 2016. "Air Pollution and Procyclical Mortality," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 3(3), pages 667-706.
    16. Bahal, Girish & Iyer, Sriya & Shastry, Kishen & Shrivastava, Anand, 2023. "Religion, Covid-19 and mental health," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    17. Mommaerts, Corina & Truskinovsky, Yulya, 2020. "The cyclicality of informal care," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    18. Costi, Chiara & Hollingsworth, Bruce & O'Sullivan, Vincent & Zucchelli, Eugenio, 2023. "Does caring for others affect our mental health? Evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 321(C).
    19. Roméo Fontaine, 2009. "Aider un parent âgé se fait-il au détriment de l'emploi ?," Post-Print hal-01427383, HAL.
    20. Pohlan, Laura, 2019. "Unemployment and social exclusion," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 273-299.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Mental health; COVID-19; Gender; Job status; Informal care; Social care; Caregivers;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J08 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics Policies
    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality
    • I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:50:y:2023:i:c:s1570677x23000266. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622964 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.