O'Sullivan Katriona, Rock Nicole, Burke Lydia, Boyle Neasa, Joksimovic Natasha, Foley Holly, Clark Serena
Department of Psychology, Assisting Living and Learning Institute (ALL), Maynooth University, Maynooth, Ireland.
Front Psychol. 2022 Jul 8;13:846238. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.846238. eCollection 2022.
The COVID-19 pandemic significantly affected family life, increasing parental stress around health, job losses, reduced salaries, and maintaining domestic life in lockdown and social isolation. The transition to home-schooling and remote work with school and workplace closures caused additional stressors as families began living, working, and educating in one place. This research aims to understand the relationship between the pandemic and parental stress, focusing on family well-being and established characteristics of the family unit that may cause some family members to experience the adverse consequences of the pandemic in more or less profound ways, especially mothers. Previous research shows that mothers carry more family responsibilities than fathers and can experience higher stress levels. This study employed a quantitative cross-sectional online survey to extend our understanding of the interaction between home-schooling, work and home life, and stress levels in a group of 364 parents. In total, 232 mothers and 132 fathers completed the survey. Results revealed mothers were 10 times more likely to be responsible for home-schooling than fathers, and 44% of mothers felt they had no help with home-schooling and were generally more stressed than fathers. These results show that lack of support, managing home-schooling, and being a mother predicted increased stress. 10% of mothers reported leaving their jobs due to pressure added by home-schooling. This study broadens the understanding of the pandemic's impact on gender imbalances in family responsibilities. It emphasises the need for extra consideration for the impact on mothers as we emerge from this pandemic.
新冠疫情对家庭生活产生了重大影响，增加了父母在健康、失业、薪资减少以及在封锁和社会隔离状态下维持家庭生活等方面的压力。随着学校和工作场所关闭，向在家上学和远程工作的转变带来了额外的压力源，因为家庭开始在一个地方生活、工作和接受教育。本研究旨在了解疫情与父母压力之间的关系，重点关注家庭幸福感以及家庭单元的既定特征，这些特征可能导致一些家庭成员或多或少地深刻体验到疫情的不利后果，尤其是母亲。先前的研究表明，母亲承担的家庭责任比父亲更多，可能会经历更高的压力水平。本研究采用定量横断面在线调查，以扩展我们对一组364名家长在家上学、工作和家庭生活之间的相互作用以及压力水平的理解。共有232名母亲和132名父亲完成了调查。结果显示，母亲负责在家上学的可能性是父亲的10倍，44%的母亲觉得她们在在家上学方面得不到帮助，而且总体上比父亲压力更大。这些结果表明，缺乏支持、管理在家上学以及身为母亲预示着压力增加。10%的母亲报告称，由于在家上学带来的压力而离职。本研究拓宽了对疫情对家庭责任中性别失衡影响的理解。它强调在我们走出这场疫情时，需要格外考虑对母亲的影响。
