Moreno-Agostino Darío, Chanfreau Jenny, Knowles Gemma, Pelikh Alina, Das-Munshi Jayati, Ploubidis George B
ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health, King's College London, UK; and Centre for Longitudinal Studies, UCL Social Research Institute, University College London, UK.
Centre for Longitudinal Studies, UCL Social Research Institute, University College London, UK; and Department of Sociology and Criminology, University of Sussex, UK.
BJPsych Open. 2024 Dec 4;10(6):e217. doi: 10.1192/bjo.2024.817.
The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected women's mental health. However, most evidence has focused on mental illbeing outcomes, and there is little evidence on the mechanisms underlying this unequal impact.
To investigate gender differences in the long-term trajectories of life satisfaction, how these were affected during the pandemic and the role of time-use differences in explaining gender inequalities.
We used data from 6766 (56.2% women) members of the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70). Life satisfaction was prospectively assessed between the ages of 26 (1996) and 51 (2021) years, using a single question with responses ranging from 0 (lowest) to 10 (highest). We analysed life satisfaction trajectories with piecewise latent growth curve models, and investigated whether gender differences in the change in the life satisfaction trajectories with the pandemic were explained by self-reported time spent doing different paid and unpaid activities.
Women had consistently higher life satisfaction than men before the pandemic (Δ = 0.213, 95% CI 0.087-0.340; 0.001) and experienced a more accelerated decline with the pandemic onset (Δ = -0.018, 95% CI -0.026 to -0.011; < 0.001). Time-use differences did not account for the more accelerated decrease in women's life satisfaction levels with the pandemic (Δ = -0.016, 95% CI -0.031 to -0.001; = 0.035).
Our study shows pronounced gender inequalities in the impact of the pandemic on the long-term life satisfaction trajectories of adults in their 50s, with women losing their pre-pandemic advantage over men. Self-reported time-use differences did not account for these inequalities. More research is needed to tackle gender inequalities in population mental health.
新冠疫情对女性心理健康的影响尤为严重。然而，大多数证据都集中在心理健康不佳的结果上，关于这种不平等影响背后的机制的证据很少。
调查生活满意度长期轨迹中的性别差异，研究这些差异在疫情期间如何受到影响，以及时间利用差异在解释性别不平等方面的作用。
我们使用了1970年英国队列研究（BCS70）中6766名成员（56.2%为女性）的数据。在26岁（1996年）至51岁（2021年）之间，通过一个单一问题对生活满意度进行前瞻性评估，回答范围从0（最低）到10（最高）。我们使用分段潜在增长曲线模型分析生活满意度轨迹，并调查疫情期间生活满意度轨迹变化中的性别差异是否可以通过自我报告的从事不同有偿和无偿活动的时间来解释。
在疫情之前，女性的生活满意度一直高于男性（Δ = 0.213，95%置信区间0.087 - 0.340；P < 0.001），并且随着疫情爆发，女性的生活满意度下降更为加速（Δ = -0.018，95%置信区间 -0.026至 -0.011；P < 0.001）。时间利用差异并不能解释女性生活满意度水平在疫情期间下降更为加速的情况（Δ = -0.016，95%置信区间 -0.031至 -0.001；P = 0.035）。
我们的研究表明，疫情对50多岁成年人长期生活满意度轨迹的影响存在明显的性别不平等，女性失去了疫情前相对于男性的优势。自我报告的时间利用差异并不能解释这些不平等现象。需要更多研究来解决人群心理健康中的性别不平等问题。
