IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/tec/journl/v24y2021i1p389-399.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

COVID-19 and its psychological impact on working parents

Author

Listed:
  • Seema Irshad

    (Assistant Professor, College of Medicine, King Faisal university, Al-Hasa, KSA)

  • Nurjahan Begum

    (Assistant Professor, College of Medicine, King Faisal university, Al-Hasa, KSA)

Abstract

Introduction: The control measures during COVID-19 taken by the Government such as curfew, lockdown, and social distancing had observed differences in controlling the spread of the disease around the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia which might contribute to psychological illnesses to working mothers. Â Methods: The present cross-sectional study experimentally investigated the psychological well-being of parents during the COVID-19 outbreak, by exploring parents' anxiety/depression, low social function and loss of confidence during pandemic, further examined that whether being female, married and working will effect on the mental status of the participants or not. Total number of participants (N=185) were assigned randomly in Saudi Arabia, 92 were males (49.73%) and 93 were females (50.27%). The 12-Item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) (Goldberg amp; Williams, 1988), consists of 12 items were administered on the participants to find out their current mental status. Results: Result of the study revealed that females were high in poorer mental well-being, which in turn was associated with anxiety-depression, social dysfunction and lack of confidence due to their work being more heavily impacted by COVID-19 and the care burden at home. Â Discussion: Studies revealed that females were high in poorer mental well-being, which in turn was associated with anxiety-depression, social dysfunction and lack of confidence due to their work being more heavily impacted by COVID-19 and the care burden at home. Special supportive steps and measures should be implemented during and after the pandemic is over. Â

Suggested Citation

  • Seema Irshad & Nurjahan Begum, 2021. "COVID-19 and its psychological impact on working parents," Technium Social Sciences Journal, Technium Science, vol. 24(1), pages 389-399, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:tec:journl:v:24:y:2021:i:1:p:389-399
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://techniumscience.com/index.php/socialsciences/article/view/4795/1678
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://techniumscience.com/index.php/socialsciences/article/view/4795
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gema Zamarro & María J. Prados, 2021. "Gender differences in couples’ division of childcare, work and mental health during COVID-19," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 11-40, March.
    2. Zhiming Cheng & Silvia Mendolia & Alfredo R. Paloyo & David A. Savage & Massimiliano Tani, 2021. "Working parents, financial insecurity, and childcare: mental health in the time of COVID-19 in the UK," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 123-144, March.
    3. Alison Andrew & Sarah Cattan & Monica Costa Dias & Christine Farquharson & Lucy Kraftman & Sonya Krutikova & Angus Phimister & Almudena Sevilla, 2022. "The gendered division of paid and domestic work under lockdown," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 43(4), pages 325-340, December.
    4. Etheridge, Ben & Spantig, Lisa, 2020. "The gender gap in mental well-being during the Covid-19 outbreak: evidence from the UK," ISER Working Paper Series 2020-08, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    5. Beuchert, Louise Voldby & Humlum, Maria Knoth & Vejlin, Rune, 2016. "The length of maternity leave and family health," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 55-71.
    6. de Pedraza, Pablo & Guzi, Martin & Tijdens, Kea, 2020. "Life Dissatisfaction and Anxiety in COVID-19 pandemic," GLO Discussion Paper Series 544, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    7. 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.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. 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.
    2. Stefanie Stantcheva, 2022. "Inequalities in the times of a pandemic," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 37(109), pages 5-41.
    3. Chaudhuri, Kausik & Howley, Peter, 2022. "The impact of COVID-19 vaccination for mental well-being," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    4. Anaya, L. & Howley, P. & Waqas, M. & Yalonetzky, G., 2021. "Locked down in distress: a causal estimation of the mental-health fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 21/10, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    5. Wilson, Jessica & Demou, Evangelia & Kromydas, Theocharis, 2024. "COVID-19 lockdowns and working women's mental health: Does motherhood and size of workplace matter? A comparative analysis using understanding society," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 340(C).
    6. 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.
    7. Bettina Siflinger & Michaela Paffenholz & Sebastian Seitz & Moritz Mendel & Hans-Martin von Gaudecker, 2021. "The COVID-19 Pandemic and Mental Health: Disentangling Crucial Channels," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2021_271, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.
    8. YAMAMURA, Eiji & Tsutsui, Yoshiro, 2020. "Impact of closing schools on mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence using panel data from Japan," MPRA Paper 105023, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Bau, Natalie & Khanna, Gaurav & Low, Corinne & Shah, Manisha & Sharmin, Sreyashi & Voena, Alessandra, 2022. "Women’s well-being during a pandemic and its containment," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    10. 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).
    11. Zhiming Cheng & Silvia Mendolia & Alfredo R. Paloyo & David A. Savage & Massimiliano Tani, 2021. "Working parents, financial insecurity, and childcare: mental health in the time of COVID-19 in the UK," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 123-144, March.
    12. Livia Alfonsi & Mary Namubiru & Sara Spaziani, 2024. "Gender gaps: back and here to stay? Evidence from skilled Ugandan workers during COVID-19," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 999-1046, September.
    13. 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.
    14. Jacques Wels, & Booth, Charlotte & Wielgoszewska, Bożena & Green, Michael J. & Di Gessa, Giorgio & Huggins, Charlotte F. & Griffith, Gareth J. & Kwong, Alex S.F. & Bowyer, Ruth C.E. & Maddock, Jane & , 2022. "Mental and social wellbeing and the UK coronavirus job retention scheme: Evidence from nine longitudinal studies," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 308(C).
    15. Mathias Huebener & Sevrin Waights & C. Katharina Spiess & Nico A. Siegel & Gert G. Wagner, 2021. "Parental well-being in times of Covid-19 in Germany," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 91-122, March.
    16. 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.
    17. Eiji Yamamura & Yoshiro Tsustsui, 2021. "School closures and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(4), pages 1261-1298, October.
    18. Galdo, Jose C. & Contreras, Cesar & Horna, Marjorie, 2025. "The Mental Health Effects of Living near Overburdened Hospitals During COVID-19 in Perú," IZA Discussion Papers 17662, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. 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).
    20. Tőkés, László, 2025. "Javítja-e a női munkavállalók válság állóságát a női döntéshozók jelenléte?. Nemi homofília és a she-cession jelenség [Does the presence of female decision-makers improve the crisis resilience of f," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(2), pages 141-157.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    COVID-19; psychological impact; working parents; marital status;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    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:tec:journl:v:24:y:2021:i:1:p:389-399. 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: Tasente Tanase The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask Tasente Tanase to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.