This study examines the association between the parental division of paid labour and depressive symptoms in a comparative perspective. It investigates how this relationship varies across couples in countries with different social policies using data from European Social Survey, and multilevel models with cross-level interactions between the parental division of paid labour and macro-level indicators of social policies.
The results indicate that dual-earner couples report fewer depressive symptoms than parents in other types of families. This relative advantage of dual-earner couples varies across policy contexts. The benefits of a dual-earner model over a male breadwinner model are larger in countries where childcare services are easily available and do not disappear in countries with generous financial support from the state. Additional analyses reveal how these relationships differ across gender.
AassveAMazzucoSMencariniL (2005) Childbearing and well-being: A comparative analysis of european welfare regimes. Journal of European Social Policy15(4): 283–299.
2.
Baranowska-RatajAStrandhM (2021) When things go wrong with you, it hurts me too. The effects of partner's Employment status on health in comparative perspective. Journal of European Social Policy31(2): 143–160.
3.
BeckerGS (1991) A Treatise on the Family (Enlarged Edition). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
4.
BirdCE (1999) Gender, household labour, and psychological distress: The impact of the amount and division of housework. Journal of Health and Social Behavior40(1): 32–45.
5.
BryanMLJenkinsSP (2015) Multilevel modelling of country effects: A cautionary tale. European Sociological Review32(1): 3–22.
6.
CarrDSpringerKW (2010) Advances in families and health research in the 21st century. Journal of Marriage and Family72(3): 743–761.
7.
DoctrinalLNelsonKSirénS (2015) Comprehensive Indicators for the Analysis of out-of-Work Benefits: Introducing the Out-of-Work Benefits Dataset. Stockholm: Swedish Institute for Social Research.
8.
ElwertFWinshipC (2014) Endogenous selection bias: The problem of conditioning on a collider variable. Annual Review of Sociology40: 31–53.
9.
Esping-AndersenG (1999) Social Foundations of Postindustrial Economies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
10.
European Social Survey (2018) ESS 1–9, European Social Survey Cumulative File, Study Description. Bergen: NSD - Norwegian Centre for Research Data for ESS ERIC. https://doi.org/10.21338/NSD-ESS-CUMULATIVE
11.
EvensonRJSimonRW (2005) Clarifying the relationship between parenthood and depression. Journal of Health and Social Behavior46(4): 341–358.
12.
FryerD (1986) Employment deprivation and personal agency during unemployment: A critical discussion of Jahoda's Explanation of the psychological effects of unemployment. Social Behaviour1(1): 3–23.
13.
GlassJSimonRWAnderssonMA (2016) Parenthood and happiness: Effects of work-family reconciliation policies in 22 OECD countries. American Journal of Sociology122(3): 886–929.
14.
GoughMKillewaldA (2011) Unemployment in families: The case of housework. Journal of Marriage and Family73(5): 1085–1100.
15.
GoveWR (1984) Gender differences in mental and physical illness: The effects of fixed roles and nurturant roles. Social Science and Medicine19(2): 77–84.
16.
GoveWRGeerkenMR (1977) The effect of children and employment on the mental health of married men and women. Social Forces56(1): 66–76.
17.
GrönlundAÖunI (2010) Rethinking work-family conflict: Dual-earner policies, role conflict and role expansion in Western Europe. Journal of European Social Policy20: 179–195.
18.
HaasBSteiberNHartelM, et al. (2006) Household employment patterns in an enlarged European Union. Work, Employment and Society20(4): 751–771.
19.
HamplováD (2019) Does work make mothers happy?Journal of Happiness Studies20(2): 471–497.
20.
HärkönenJ (2011) Children and dual worklessness in Europe: A comparison of nine countries. European Journal of Population27(2): 217–241.
21.
HeflinCMIcelandJ (2009) Poverty, material hardship, and depression. Social Science Quarterly90(5): 1051–1071.
22.
HeisigJPSchaefferM (2019) Why you should always include a random slope for the lower-level variable involved in a cross-level interaction. European Sociological Review35(2): 258–279.
23.
JahodaM (1981) Work, employment, and unemployment: Values, theories, and approaches in social research. American psychologist36(2): 184.
24.
KalmijnMMondenCW (2012) The division of labour and depressive symptoms at the couple level: Effects of equity or specialization?Journal of Social and Personal Relationships29(3): 358–374.
25.
KowalewskaHVitaliA (2020) Breadwinning or on the breadline? Female breadwinners’ economic characteristics across 20 welfare states. Journal of European Social Policy31(2): 125–142.
26.
LewisJCampbellMHuertaC (2008) Patterns of paid and unpaid work in Western Europe: Gender, commodification, preferences and the implications for policy. Journal of European Social Policy18(1): 21–37.
27.
NordenmarkM (2004) Multiple social roles and well-being: A longitudinal test of the role stress theory and the role expansion theory. Acta Sociologica47(2): 115–126.
28.
RadloffLS (1977) The CES-D scale: A self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement1(3): 385–401.
29.
RossCEMirowskyJHuberJ (1983) Dividing work, sharing work, and in-between: Marriage patterns and depression. American Sociological Review48(6): 809–823.
30.
RuppannerLPixleyJE (2012) Work-to-family and family-to-work spillover: The implications of childcare policy and maximum work-hour legislation. Journal of Family and Economic Issues33: 283–297.
31.
Schmidt-CatranAWFairbrotherM (2016) The random effects in multilevel models: Getting them wrong and getting them right. European Sociological Review32(1): 23–38.
32.
SchoberPSchmittC (2017) Day-care availability, maternal employment and satisfaction of parents: Evidence from cultural and policy variations in Germany. Journal of European Social Policy27(5): 433–446.
33.
ShockleyKMShenW (2016) Couple dynamics: Division of labour. In: AllenTEbyL (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Work and Family. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 125–139.
34.
SjöbergO (2004) The role of family policy institutions in explaining gender-role attitudes: A comparative multilevel analysis of thirteen industrialized countries. Journal of European Social Policy14(2): 107–123.
35.
StierHLewin-EpsteinNBraunM (2012) Work-family conflict in comparative perspective: The role of social policies. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility30(3): 265–279.
36.
StrandhMHammarströmANilssonK, et al. (2013) Unemployment, gender and mental health: The role of the gender regime. Sociology of Health and Illness35(5): 649–665.
37.
StrandhMNordenmarkM (2006) The interference of paid work with household demands in different social policy contexts: Perceived work–household conflict in Sweden, the UK, the Netherlands, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. The British Journal of Sociology57(4): 597–617.
38.
StrömS (2003) Unemployment and families: A review of research. Social Service Review77(3): 399–430.
39.
TeghtsoonianK (2009) Depression and mental health in neoliberal times: A critical analysis of policy and discourse. Social Science and Medicine69(1): 28–35.
40.
ThoitsPA (2011) Mechanisms linking social ties and support to physical and mental health. Journal of Health and Social Behavior52(2): 145–161.
41.
TrappeHPollmann-SchultMSchmittC (2015) The rise and decline of the male breadwinner model: Institutional underpinnings and future expectations. European Sociological Review31(2): 230–242.
42.
TreasJvan der LippeTTaiTC (2011) The happy homemaker? Married Women's Well-Being in cross-national perspective. Social Forces90(1): 111–132.
43.
TreasJWidmerED (2000) Married women's Employment over the life course: Attitudes in cross-national perspective. Social Forces78(4): 1409–1436.
44.
Van de VeldeSBrackePLevecqueK (2010) Gender differences in depression in 23 european countries. Cross-national variation in the gender gap in depression. Social Science and Medicine71(2): 305–313.
45.
VoßemerJGebelMTähtK, et al. (2017) The effects of unemployment and insecure jobs on well-being and health: The moderating role of labour market policies. Social Indicators Research138(3): 1229–1257.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
